Where did BDC's omnipresent ad campaign go?

They were everywhere up until just a few weeks ago, and then poof. It was gone.

I’m thinking of the airport and television ad campaign of the Business Development Bank of Canada. It was everywhere; impossible to miss. As you read a few months ago, I used the wonders of the Access to Information Act to get the details of the BDC’s ad campaign spend over the past few years, and lo and behold, there was a massive ramp right before the start of Parliament’s 10 year statutory review of the BDC (see prior post “BDC bumps advertising spend 173% post-recession” July 15-11). What took $2.6 million for 2008/09 became $7.6 million for the combined 2010/11 fiscal years. Right when Senators, MPs and Public Servants were asking themselves how effective the organization was. And after the worst of the economic crisis had ended.

What better time to bombard people with a campaign to show how essential your crown organization is? Even if the new campaign reduces the organization’s net income by ~30% in the most recent fiscal year. Funds that could otherwise have gone to reduce the national deficit or support the ever-weaker start-up industry (see prior post “Venture Capital advances drop 33% at BDC in fiscal 2010 part 2” Sept 27-10) instead.

It has been awhile since I’ve seen a single BDC TV ad. Has the economy improved that much in the last few months that BDC no longer needs to advertise? Are banks pouring their coffers into the jeans of entrepreneurs and small businesses? Maybe I’m just not watching enough of the boob tube.

MRM