Sociology Assignment: Analysis of Canadian Ad Campaign and Culture

This essay provides a sociological analysis of an advertisement by the Canadian clothing brand Peace Collective, focusing on their campaign that transformed the MAGA hat into a symbol of acceptance by creating a "Welcome to Canada" toque. The essay explores the brand's use of multiculturalism, highlighting the diverse ethnic backgrounds of Canadians and their individual stories. It discusses how the advertisement reflects Canadian values and societal norms, examining the impact of the campaign on cultural beliefs and the potential for both positive and negative influences. The analysis considers the historical context of immigration in Canada, the challenges faced by immigrants, and the brand's attempt to promote cross-cultural understanding. The essay references various studies and reports to support its arguments, concluding with a reflection on the role of advertising in shaping societal values and the importance of considering diverse perspectives.

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SOCIOLOGY
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Introduction
Advertising has been in survival since time immemorial and has tended to function as a
marketing tool which captures the core of the society. Recently, commercials have been focusing
on cultural beliefs, values and norms of society thus connecting individuals with the conviction
they want to represent. However, according to De Mooij (2018), if these cultural values are well
recognized, advertisements may facilitate successful preservation of societal such values and if
have been scantly deciphered these advertisements may tend to bane on societal fabrics. Thus,
authors have noted that advertisements have the capacity to influence the norms, convictions and
values of a particular society at positive as well as negative level. The essay will provide a
sociological analysis of an advertisement introduced by a Canadian fabric brand.
Discussion
Peace Collective, a Canadian clothing brand with the aim of making a difference in the
society has recently unraveled its new product MAGA hat letter-by-letter and stitch-by-stitch.
Reports of authors have revealed that the thread of the MAGA hat has created a new symbol
which is a red toque with white lettering that interprets, "Welcome to Canada" (Collective ,
2019). Moreover, the online video featuring the advertisement has shown five Canadians of
diverse ethnic backgrounds narrate their individualistic unique stories. These stories primarily
based on the way these ethnically diverse individuals have immigrated to the country, Canada
and responded to the MAGA hat as well as the newly created toque. Authors have noted that the
participants mainly involved Aorwa, a Syrian refugee who fled the Syrian Civil War; Cori, an
LGBT American currently residing in Canada and Victor, an immigrant from Uganda (Lee, Kim
& Ham, 2016).

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Multiculturalism value has been fundamental to the belief and convictions of Canadians
that all citizens are equal. de Waal Malefyt (2015) has noted that Canada being an egalitarian
society perceive all citizens to be equal which thus has blurred out any form of hierarchical
structure within the society. Considering Canada’s Individualistic yet community-oriented
approach, Peace Collective has designed its new product, MAGA hat thus signifying Canadians
high awareness of their role and responsibility towards communal values and standards. Peace
Collective recognized for its hometown pleasure decorated apparel and accessories like “Toronto
-versus- Everyone” and “Home Is Canada,” in recent times have launched a campaign that sheds
light on things which Canadians have been lately in quest of. Comprehensive studies of authors
have mentioned that historically, Canada began developing into a well-established nation by
welcoming immigrants (Han & Tsai, 2016).
Moreover, even in recent times, Canadians tend to sustain its richness and diversity that
individuals of diverse cultural and ethnic background contribute to society. Drawing relevance,
to these factors, Peace Collective chose to design its MAGA hat thus exhibiting Canada’s and its
people’s support in amalgamating with diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds (Jardine, 2019).
The product has depicted Canada’s multiculturalism as a toque stitched with the very thread in
order to depict the brand’s consideration towards Canada’s diverse ethnic populations who have
immigrated to the nation. Lee, Kim and Ham (2016) have revealed that the major focus of the
company to showcase its brand amongst the diverse population and further promoting people’s
rights to maintain their distinctive cultural identity thus supporting cross-cultural understanding
and harmony and its attempt to ‘brand’ its customer base constituting of diverse a cultural
backgrounds.

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Reports of Bhattacharjee (2017) has noted that the four words decorated in the baseball
cap by Peace Collective have emerged as an iconic representation since its launch in the market.
However, Erten, van den Berg and Weissing (2018) have noted that Canada has successfully
sustained increasing levels of immigration without experiencing an illiberal populist upsurge.
Such an approach of the country towards its immigrant population has led the country to be
highly inclusive in the world in its own approach toward immigrants, religion as well as
sexuality. Considering Canada’s anti-immigrant views and upholding its multicultural value,
Peace Collective with its MAGA hat and its campaign has further reinforced the company’s anti-
immigrant as well as anti-minority views similar to Canada (Jardine, 2019). As a result, the hat
has developed into a successful representation of the disruptive and aggressive political climate
appearing across the world. Comprehensive studies of Lee, Kim and Ham (2016) have noted that
Canada in its ranking of national symbols and values have attempted to position the concept of
multiculturalism subsequent to its national anthem, thus exhibiting its consideration towards
welcoming immigrants from various parts of the world.
On the other hand, reports on the advertisement feature and underlying concept have
revealed that through the advertisement of MAGA Hat, Peace Collective as a brand promoting
multiculturalism has been creating an opportunity for the company to enlighten the world that
acceptance tends to be highly reinforcing factor than hate, thus the idea of the company relied on
taking a symbol of division and entirely renovate it (Jardine, 2019). Such a strategy to shape the
social value of the Canadian society has been developed by focusing on areas where Canada has
not revealed some delightful elixir to wipe out intolerance, racial discrimination or inequality,
which are still currently present in the nation comprising of around 36 million. Likewise, Han
and Tsai (2016) have noted that several indigenous communities of Canada which have endured

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centuries of inequality, brutalization and prejudice still live under conditions which are still
perceived as “third world”. According to Bhattacharjee (2017), as Canada has still been showing
a certain uncertainty in welcoming all immigrants, Peace Collective has strategized to establish
its advertising strategies and concepts in Canadian values with an aim to showcase that major
strength of the country lie on its value of diversity. The advertisement featuring five individual
from different cultural background has purposed to strengthen the welcoming nature of the
country. Erten, van den Berg and Weissing (2018) have claimed that the persuasive accounts of
the advertisement regarding the way the lifestyle clothing company has perceived the original
hat’s sentiment and the way they found a welcome abode up have intercut with footage of the
unthreaded MAGA hats prior to revealing the ‘Welcome to Canada’ toque.
Lee, Kim and Ham (2016) have noted that Canadians have positioned their interest of
multiculturalism at the core of their values and principles. However, authors have stated that
several Canadian immigrants have shown resistance to the fact that MAGA hat has come to
symbolize the values of Canadian immigrants over time. Reports of de Waal Malefyt (2015)
have revealed that many Canadian immigrants have shown a tendency to resist the marketing
strategy of Peace Collective’s MAGA hat as they still have been facing discriminatory
approaches from several Canadians. Han and Tsai (2016) have revealed that the Canada’s
immigration system has been receiving severe backlash due to the unexpected nuances related to
Canada’s immigration policy. Skilled immigrants in Canada struggle in the labour market thus
encountering severely elevated levels of unemployment as well as lower wages than non-
immigrants. As per the reports of Jardine (2019), newly emerged immigrants have been
encountering an unemployment rates which has been accounted to be almost twice as high as
Canadian-born workers of the same age. Furthermore, it has been noted that immigrants tend to

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earn around 48% lower wages than similarly-aged non-immigrants with equivalent
degrees. These factors have been serving highly decisive role in posing resistance to accept the
‘welcoming’ and ‘multiculturalism’ notion of the Canadians. De Mooij (2018) at this juncture
has claimed that the impact of racism in Indigenous communities living in Canada tend to range
from a lack of “self-worth” in youth to safety concerns for women. Considering these weakening
position of Indigenous communities, they tend to show resistance to the concept of Peace
Collective and rather emphasize on strengthening the anti-immigrant policies of the country.
Conclusion
Hence to conclude, focusing on entrenched values and beliefs of
consumers, advertisers can accomplish them on a deeper level and successfully tend to capture
their consideration in the first place. It has been noted that value-based advertising of Peace
Collective has reinforced its brand loyalty and enhanced connections among its consumers.

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References
Abedi, M. (2017). Canada is 150 and still needs to face its racism problem: advocates. Retrieved
from https://globalnews.ca/news/3556823/racism-in-canada/
Bhattacharjee, A. (2017). Impact of “Cultural Imperialism” on Advertising and
Marketing. Journal Of Intercultural Communication, 45, 1.
Collective, P. (2019). Peace Collective transforms "MAGA" hat into a symbol of acceptance.
Retrieved from https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/peace-collective-transforms-
maga-hat-into-a-symbol-of-acceptance-855401981.html
De Mooij, M. (2018). Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes.
SAGE Publications Limited.
de Waal Malefyt, T. (2015). Relationship advertising: How advertising can enhance social
bonds. Journal of Business Research, 68(12), 2494-2502.
Erten, E. Y., van den Berg, P., & Weissing, F. J. (2018). Acculturation orientations affect the
evolution of a multicultural society. Nature communications, 9(1), 58.
Han, X., & Tsai, S. W. (2016). Beyond targeted advertising: Representing disenfranchised
minorities in ‘inclusive’advertising. Journal of Cultural Marketing Strategy, 1(2), 154-
169.
Jardine, A. (2019). This campaign for a Canadian clothing brand recycles MAGA caps to
promote acceptance. Retrieved from https://adage.com/creativity/work/peace-collective-
unravelhate/2157986

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Lee, J., & Hong, I. B. (2016). Predicting positive user responses to social media advertising: The
roles of emotional appeal, informativeness, and creativity. International Journal of
Information Management, 36(3), 360-373.
Lee, J., Kim, S., & Ham, C. D. (2016). A double-edged sword? Predicting consumers’ attitudes
toward and sharing intention of native advertising on social media. American Behavioral
Scientist, 60(12), 1425-1441.