BBDO Canada’s Craig Cooper can’t understand why it takes so much money to make a 30-second commercial. Based in Toronto, the agency’s senior VP and creative director (a title he shares with Scott Dube), says he is ‘personally shocked’ by how much it costs to execute even the simplest ideas. He adds that he wouldn’t be so vocal about the budgets if the money went to making the spots the best they can be.

‘We are going to destroy our own commercial production industry if we don’t keep top of mind that what is important is what goes on film,’ says Cooper. ‘I don’t need a fancy dinner or a stay at the swankiest hotel in town, as long as where I stay doesn’t have cockroaches. It’s the quality of the work that matters.’

He believes that some smaller countries with smaller ad budgets are generating higher caliber results, and doesn’t see why local work is often not measuring up. He cites Sweden and the Netherlands as examples of small-market countries producing quality work.

‘The Netherlands has a population of just more than 15 million,’ he points out. ‘It’s half the size of Canada, but there are some pretty fantastic productions coming out of there. Sweden, which had virtually no commercial production industry even 10 years ago, is actually a world leader now. It’s a matter of making sure the priorities are in the right place.’

He admits it is sometimes difficult to trim expenses, especially when you live in the shadow of the U.S., where advertising budgets are much more liberal. He says that if the average budget of a spot in Canada is in the area of $250,000, but the U.S. market adopts a ‘why not spend a million?’ attitude, ‘It makes it tougher for us. But the reality is that we get judged on a world-class level, and if we want to keep the industry healthy and vibrant, we have to make sure the dollars we do spend are in the film.’

Because of the current state of the economy, Cooper senses a general nervousness from all sectors of the industry. BBDO recently lost client The Globe and Mail, which going forward opted to keep all promotional work in-house. The agency still boasts an impressive and diverse list of clients, including Pepsi, FedEx, Gillette, Bayer, Hostess Frito-Lay and Lever Pond’s, and Cooper seems optimistic that once the hype about a recession dies down, business will return to its normal levels.

He also feels that America’s so-called War on Terrorism will not have a major impact on creative.

‘Longer term, I don’t think so,’ he says. ‘Obviously if we erupted into a third world war, or even a more sustained ‘hot war,’ that would have a profound effect on things. Certainly you’ve got to be sensitive to the mood of the specific moment. That is what advertising is all about.’

In the meantime, he continues to push his creative teams, and himself, to produce work that is simple and relevant, both for the client and the consumer. He gives the example of the Pontiac Sunfire ‘Carlito’s Driveway’ commercial he wrote with art director Briony Wilson while the team served at Toronto’s MacLaren Lintas. The spot featured a man standing in his kitchen, shifting his faucet like gears while staring longingly out the window at his car. Cooper believes it is a moment many of us can relate to, and says it is the sort of work he expects from his teams.

‘We’ve all seen ads that bore us to tears, with somebody holding a bottle, extolling its virtues,’ he says. ‘That is an advertisement relevant to the product, but not the consumer. What you want to do – advertising’s ultimate purpose – is to connect with the consumer.’