Mystery Billboards

Bell, one of they key Canadian network providers, has completely ditched their old brand image, abandoning their iconic beaver mascots, "Frank and Gordon" and released a series of mystery ads.

Their latest campaign has Canadians quite confused. Around major cities, billboards have appeared with a corner of a giant letter peering down from the top, and nothing else on the white banners except the letters, "er."

For a few weeks, people were left wondering what mystery company the ads were for. Now Bell finally offered pieces of the puzzle that revealed it was their doing.

But what does the ubiquitous "er" mean? Are they trying to recoin the stereotypical Canadian catchphrase, "Eh?" Nope, they're just letting us know that Bell is about to get better.

"To tie the advertising even more closely to the concept of 'better' and underline the range of product and benefits Bell offers, the English campaign also makes liberal use of words ending in 'er' - faster, easier, music lover, gamer, worker, talker, texter, multitasker - which was also the basis of the company's recent advertising teaser campaign."

Aside from the mystery of it all, I find the cross-branding really interesting. For example, one shot shows a Starbucks cup and the copy, "Lattes and laptops just got together."

Another clearly competes with the Apple iPhone, which is offered by competitor, Rogers. The ad is for the Samsung Instinct and reads, "Apple Eater."

Bell has also come up with a new slogan, "Today just got better" and in Quebec, "La vie est Bell," a nice play on words meaning, "Life is Bell."

Interesting, but not as catchy as Fido's dogs or the adorable creatures Telus features. At least Bell is doing their own thing and steering clear of the over-done animal theme. What do animals have to do with technology anyway?