“Broken Escalator” by Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto

The product: Becel Margarine

The creatives: Tim Piper, Mike Kirkland, Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk The brief: Create a television ad that a) encourages Canadians to improve their health and b) promotes Becel’s Heart Health Makeover contest.

The insight: “Most people know that they should eat better, and that they should exercise more. But they often don’t know where to start. The spot drives that insight in a humorous way,” said Erin Iles, marketing director for spreads and dressings at Unilever Canada.

The media buy: The ad is running across Canada on a wide variety of programming. Unlike some other grocery products, Becel does not skew its media buy predominantly towards women because it sees men as key influencers even if they don’t do as much of the shopping.

The prequel: The ad was based on a short film Mr. Piper wrote and directed in Australia before he moved to Canada. In that film, which is darker in tone, a larger group of people are stuck on the escalator. Mr. Piper directed the commercial, as well as writing and art directing it with Mr. Kirkland.

The originality: Is an ad original if a creative bases it on his own previous work? Yes, says Ms. Vonk, a creative director at Ogilvy & Mather. “We all said: ‘If you’re stealing from yourself, it’s not stealing, is it?”

The results: Ms. Iles said the ad has been extremely successful, driving 100,000 people to enter the contest. And in February, Becel saw its highest market share in three years.