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Martin Beauvais wants to see the Canadian advertising industry take some chances, and he wants to see it soon.

The VP, creative director at PNMD Communication in Montreal believes Canadians are ready to accept advertising that is a little more risque than they are used to. He says we should look to places like Brazil, London and Melbourne to see the kind of advertising we are missing out on.

Beauvais has been in the ad biz for 14 years, starting out as an art director at Tamtam in Montreal, now Tamtam TBWA. After a stint as a creative in Australia, Beauvais moved back to Montreal to take a job at TAXI Advertising, where he worked his way up to creative director. He joined PNMD three years ago as executive art director and was appointed creative director last June.

Beauvais has one cardinal rule: keep it simple.

"I’ve decided to focus on the simple communication," says Beauvais. "I ask everybody to be pertinent and simple and to make things beautiful. These are my three key words. If I see an ad that isn’t simple but highly pertinent and very beautiful I will never accept it."

He says despite the storied differences between Quebecois and other Canucks, the ad game is not all that different. He admits, however, there are different ways to motivate consumers depending on which province they call home.

"I always say to my clients in Toronto that the way to most Canadians’ wallets is through a rationale in their brains, but the way to a Quebecois’ wallet is through his or her heart," says Beauvais. "Advertising here [in Quebec] is more emotional, more linked to pop culture, and more linked to a very unique and different Quebecois attitude. You won’t see any Survivor or Big Brother spin-off ads here, but you have things that are very colloquial in a very tiny and different market. It won’t necessarily travel well to France or England or the States because it is so much linked to the market here."

With a client list that includes the Quebec Milk Producers, the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency, Labatt, Chrysler, Pepsi, Red Cross, Alcan and others, Beauvais and his creative staff have a lot to work with. When offering up a board or boards to the salivating production houses in Quebec, Toronto or elsewhere, Beauvais says he likes to keep the project in Quebec first, and barring that, in Canada.

He wishes many agency creative folks could be as creative in production as they are when putting together a board.

"I know there is a tendency in Toronto that as soon as you’ve got a big enough budget to get a director from New York or London," says Beauvais. "I think advertising people tend to be uncreative when it comes to production. In Canada, we tend to go with big directors and big production houses, but we don’t need that. We need to think creatively when we produce and not be so scared of making mistakes. We have to keep trying and keep pushing the limits."

Beauvais fears Canadian spots are stagnating, while international ads continue to garner respect and awards because of the gutsy way they are made and presented.

"I think Canada is the only country in the world that took political correctness so seriously in the ’90s," says Beauvais. "Even more so than the Americans who probably invented political correctness. I think this is bad."

He says PNMD is trying to stretch the parameters of political correctness with some highly sexy ads for the Dodge Neon, shot a while back in Montreal. He says international response has been more than favorable.

"Countries like Brazil and South America are buying them [the ads] because they are a little more sexual than you would expect a typical car ad to be," says Beauvais.

He says with a little persuasion and a few relevant examples, clients can be convinced that certain risks can be taken safely in their advertising. And clients in Quebec are more inclined to make the jump when given a gentle nudge.

"Quebec is somewhat more liberal," says Beauvais. "I would say that Quebec is the Brazil of North America. I think we should play on that but we don’t. We’re not wild enough. I think we have the potential in the advertising market to come up with killer work.

"There is great work being done here and work that will win at international award shows, but it is all work that in some ways copies what is being done around the world," says Beauvais. "I think there is probably a different Canadian mentality and attitude that can make people around the world say Canadian advertising is different."

His parting thoughts?

"It’s only advertising," he says. "It’s show business. We should up the volume on the ‘show’ part of it." *

-www.pnmd.com