Barrett and Welsh

11/01/2024

Diwali celebrates the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. It’s a celebration based on the story from ancient Hindu scripture that tells how the God-king Rama vanquished the demon-king Ravana of the ten heads and twenty arms. Diwali commemorates Ram’s triumph and his return to his capital where every home welcomes him home with diyas—clay lamps.

But tonight is also Halloween, the night when porches and doorsteps are lit by spooky jack-o’ lanterns, their demonic pumpkin faces lit in fiendish delight. So this Diwali-Halloween?/Hallowali?/Diwaleen?, we’ve decided to celebrate with a special, scary mashup character of our own – a Ravana-o’-lantern. Illustrator: our very own Harini Kannan.

02/11/2024

Barrett and Welsh wishes all who celebrate the Lunar New Year that it — and they — may radiate with the joy of a thousand brilliant ideas.

Described video: a slow zoom out on a hyper-real photorealistic image of a flaming pearl in the maw of a smiling multicoloured Chinese dragon lit by scattered embers. Three lines appear in sequence. 1. In Chinese: 龙光焕发, which means "may the dragon’s light glow" – a wish to radiate success and vitality from within. 2. Followed by an English line: May a thousand brilliant ideas be your dragon light. 3. A very happy Lunar New Year to all.

01/31/2024

Hello, FB peeps. If you are (or know) South Asian Canadian parents-with-babies/parents-to-be in the GTA, I have a special treat for you. We've launched our first AI campaign (for RESP company Canadian Scholarship Trust). Enter your deets here to get a special personalized-by-AI video message, from your baby from the future. You'll also get a chance to win a $10K RESP (there are $20K in prizes to be won). Share freely with other parents in your network! Good luck!

By completing the short form below, you'll get a mauka to win a $10,000 CST RESP or one of 100 prizes worth $100 with our contest, and have read and agree to the contest terms. Receive a special AI-generated video from your baby!

12/23/2023

It’s that time of the year when we at Barrett and Welsh post our traditional, el cheapo, tongue-in-cheek holiday greeting and then head off to get all silly on our eggnog. This year, we’ve prepared a one-of-a-kind Christmas video catalogue filled with carefully selected gifts (no real gifts included). If you work in our business, you’re sure to find something that speaks to you. Zoom in and view the carousel full screen for maximum enjoyment or click the link in our bio to view the video. Merry Christmas from all of us at Barrett and Welsh.

12/23/2023

It’s that time of the year when we at Barrett and Welsh post our traditional, el cheapo, tongue-in-cheek holiday greeting and then head off to get all silly on our eggnog. This year, we’ve prepared a one-of-a-kind Christmas video catalogue filled with carefully selected gifts (no real gifts included). If you work in our business, you’re sure to find something that speaks to you. Click the link and view in full screen mode for maximum enjoyment. Merry Christmas from all of us at Barrett and Welsh.

2023 Christmas Gift Catalogue Curated with love, care, and by Barrett and Welsh

11/11/2023

A wish for dark times. And a message for . A salute to those who sacrificed so much. And a very Happy Diwali to all who celebrate. From the lamp-lighters at Barrett and Welsh.

10/21/2023

Some shoots are great even when they begin at 3 am. Some shoots are great because they begin at 3 am. Thank you .sethi for that awesome day.

03/31/2023

March is a very special month for us. Especially this year.
You see, in March 2003, we began our life as an agency.

Our founders introduced our tartan turban logo to the world by distributing our first business cards while on a shoot for another agency (a buccaneer sensibility that still infects us).

20 years later, here we are. It's the last day of March 2023.

The 2023 Strategy Creative Report Card was published earlier this month.

We ranked #36 out of the 139 agencies listed.

This is amazing to us. We rose to that position entirely with our multicultural work, work that won at the Marketing Awards.

Most other agencies on that list get there with massive mainstream budgets for gen pop campaigns. This is not to diminish their achievements. But they're big ships. And they have the deep pockets that go with Bigness. They have offices across the country, and win big at international, national and regional shows. They have annual budgets simply to participate in Cannes and the One Show.

Ourselves, we're from the Republic of Small. It's an independent, democratic island nation. The inhabitants are multicoloured and multilingual and smell delicious. But every time one of those big ships sloshes by, our little island is nearly drowned in its wake.

Our pockets have holes.

If we find extra money in them, it's usually used to hire more people of colour or to donate our services to pro-bono causes.

For all that, amazingly, it appears we have been able to do good and do well.

We’re the only multicultural shop in the top 40.

Even though this is a creative report card and account management, production and media are not ranked, there is no way we could have done this without every single one of us supporting each other. We did this because of the extraordinary team we have. From leaders to interns, every one of them is a winner.

Here’s looking forward to whatever comes next: the next milestone, the next ranking, the next brilliant idea, the next win.

But, hopefully, it's a pint.

If it is, we raise it to our team. And to the clients that believed in us and paid for the work that got us here.

Skol!

02/09/2023

We are proud to have one of our own serve on the multicultural category jury at Strategy's 2023 Marketing Awards. Cyril Kirian is ready to use his superpowers as a force for good. Multicultural creatives be warned. Submit your best work. Judgement Day is nigh. :-)

12/23/2022

Sometimes the brightest idea is switching off. From the bright idea people at Barrett and Welsh, and

08/16/2022

This post is long overdue. But today, these beauties arrived, and the time turned right o’clock.

The Marketing Awards are our industry’s premier awards for creativity in advertising.
At the 2022 Marketing show, Barrett and Welsh walked away with a gold for our POCAM print ad: White Space.
Barrett and Welsh stood 5th in the overall rankings. Just after Rethink, Zulu Alpha Kilo, Cossette and John Street, and just above Leo Burnett, JP/TBWA, Wunderman Thompson, BHLA and Sid Lee.

We also won 3 silvers (for POCAM, Nia Centre and our Year of the Ox greetings) and 5 bronzes (2 of them for TD, CPAMO, POCAM, Lygia’s Brew and the Tartan Turban Secret Readings). It was especially gratifying to see two of our team who are newer immigrants pick up their first awards in Canada.

The Marketing Awards are a creative show. But creative work never gets to see the light of day without a massive amount of support from every discipline and every department in an agency. We celebrate the arrival of these awards today and all who chipped in, in all the ways they do, to keep our flag flying high.

05/04/2022

On World Press Freedom Day, we are sharing this Barrett and Welsh Inc ad for immigrant journalism non-profit New Canadian Media We pause to acknowledge the courage and calibre of immigrant/refugee journalists. And we recognize that the continued absence/underrepresentation of these voices in Canadian media is an indicator of systemic exclusion. A truly free press welcomes all, freely. Shockingly, only 29% of immigrant and refugee journalists find work in Canada though 93% would like to continue working as journalists here. We need these voices. World-class talent from all around the world is all around us. Set it free. https://vimeo.com/387600656

In an era of divisiveness and disinformation, a strong, diverse, free press is vital to the health of public discourse. But immigrant views are not adequately reflected…

02/21/2022

Barrett and Welsh is proud to present Tartan Turban Secret Readings #33 (7 PM this Friday, Feb 25). This Black History Month special edition is curated by Dr. , the award-winning Nigerian-born poet and publisher. Featuring George Elliott Clarke, Lillian Allen, Clifton Joseph, Bertrand Bickersteth and H Nigel Thomas reading their poetry and reflecting on what Black History Month means to them as human beings, as Black individuals connected to a Black collective experience, and as poets. Tickets (free) via Eventbrite - link to book in ‘s bio. Hope you can make it!

02/02/2022

For the 3rd year in a row, our cofounder and Chief Creative Officer, Gavin Barrett aka will be writing daily profiles of Black industry professionals on LinkedIn, to fight invisibility and to celebrate Black talent. This year are publishing every single profile he writes. Follow along by reading The Message or following Gavin on LinkedIn. It’s a chance to be inspired by some amazing people and experiences.

01/27/2022

Stay tuned to read about these profile sketches, by Gavin Barrett, of successful industry professionals being published in next month:
https://tinyurl.com/4sbtk222

Once again Gavin Barrett is posting profiles of Black people working in the industry, to fight invisibility and expand the community. This year, you can read all the profiles on The Message.

01/13/2022

Judging award shows is one way leaders celebrate greatness in others, for the good of all. CEO spent the break judging the ATOMIC Awards. And co-founder Gavin Barrett aka kicks off 2022 by returning as multicultural category co-chair in Marketing Awards’ centennial year.

12/22/2021

For this year’s Christmas greeting, we wanted to look away from the pandemic, and look into the crazy fun life we lead in the ad industry.

With its challenges and joys, it has found a way to keep us all employed, engaged and enthusiastic over 2021.

And so we present send to you our annual holiday greeting, replete with snakes wearing their best Christmas bows, ladders done up in Christmas lights, garlands of holly and red hot chilli peppers.

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.

And all the very best for a 2022 that treats us all, and the planet, more kindly.