“If you guys want this look, you’ve got to do this… This is completely Newfoundland,” said Diane Bald, the wife of the founder and CEO of Roots Canada Ltd. to the company’s staff.
What began for Bald as an artistic vacation, turned into a unique take at provincial advertising.
It could be seen on the back of a Globe and Mail paper last week.
Roots shot its fall lineup — entitled “Exploring our Roots” — this June in Port Rexton. Bald said she was looking at catalogue’s initial presentation, which was reminiscent of the highlands and coastlines of Scotland, when she remembered the Bonavista region.
She said she told them, “No, we’re doing this is Newfoundland because we can recreate that Highlands feel, with the beautiful coast and cabin on the hill.
In hindsight, Bald said it was a long way to come, but noted they got some spectacular shots.
“It was just a fantastic place to shoot because you could really get some varied landscapes and very different looks,” she said, adding the shoot lasted four days.
It wasn’t just the sights that sold Roots on the region, it was the people.
During one of the shoots, the 12-person crew found themselves on a dock with a little boathouse. The crew couldn’t find the owner, and Bald said she felt funny using a stranger’s dock.
When the owner approached the crew, he not only welcomed them, but let them into the boathouse too.
“It was just so sweet and kind,” she said, “the people are so, so nice.”
After deciding to shoot in Newfoundland, Roots approached the provincial government to see if any funding was available.
Although the company has done shoots in Vancouver, B.C., and in Algonquin Park, Ont., Bald said this was the first time the company approached a provincial government for this kind of finding.
“We approached (the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation) out of the blue just to see if there was that anything we could co-venture in on and they were eager to be a part of it,” Bald said. “It turned out really well.”
Terry French, minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation (TCR), said the department gave Roots a little under $10,000 to off set the company’s travel expenses.
He said he was pleasantly surprised when Roots approached the government.
“They actually approached us,” French said. “Usually we come looking for this type of business, but they came knocking on our door.
“A company like Roots who have catalogues that will probably fall on the eves of several million people, we thought it was a great buy.”
The funding came from a travel media program, which promotes the province through media outlets.
Although most funding goes to magazines like Vogue Canada and Flare Magazine for photographs and articles, French said Roots put the right image forward.
“Roots is a good Canadian company; they’re known, they’re well respected, they put a lot into the environment,” he said. “We’re certainly not going to commercialize Newfoundland and Labrador, because in actual fact is promoting quite the opposite — we’re promoting the nature and culture, history and heritage.
“Obviously we wouldn’t do anything to compromise that.”
John Fisher, owner of the Fishers Loft Inn in Port Rexton, agrees with French, saying it’s a good promotion for the province.
“There are certain products you wouldn’t want to be connected with, but I don’t think Roots is one of those,” Fisher said. “Roots, after all, was a primary sponsor of the Olympic teams in Canada for about three years.
He added, “I don’t think there’s a real problem there.”
mclarkson@thepacket.ca
.jpg)
.jpg)
