Hats off to the marketing and publicity folks at Shaw Media for indulging in a little old fashioned ballyhoo.
If you bought any groceries over the weekend in a major Canadian city, chances are your goodies were divided on the checkout conveyor by a cardboard knife courtesy Top Chef Canada. The series, a homegrown spinoff of Bravo’s popular Top Chef, premieres tonight at 9 ET/10 PT on Food Network Canada. Sixteen Canadian chefs battle it out to win the $100,000 cash prize. Toronto restaurateur and celebrity chef Mark McEwan (owner of North 44) acts as Head Judge with Thea Andrews hosting. The chefs, from all across Canada, can also win a $30,000 kitchen.
Top Chef Canada comes hard on the heels of the launch of Wipeout Canada as a reality series Canadians can finally take part in. So when do we get to play Canadian Survivor?
The other nifty marketing idea was wrapping the Saturday edition of The Toronto Star in actual news reports culled from the Kennedy years in order to promote The Kennedys, which launched Sunday night on History Television. It was a nice nostalgic touch and also a good read.
Speaking of The Kennedys, follow this link to the video I shot for The Canadian Press of the red carpet premiere in Beverly Hills earlier this month.
