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Brandaid is a project launched in 2008 by Canadian advertising executives to help Haiti’s artisans with the design, branding and business connections

A new ad is aiming to convince Canadians to think of Haiti in a new way: as a creative hub.

The TV commercial now running on Rogers Media-owned stations City, OMNI and Sportsnet, is for Brandaid – a project launched in 2008 by Canadian advertising executives to help Haiti's artisans with the design, branding and business connections they need to make their goods marketable on a global scale.

This holiday shopping season, Brandaid has been promoting its partnership with Hudson's Bay that has brought the initiative home to Canada, offering hand-made products for sale at the retailer's flagship Toronto store and on its website.

Brandaid's products have already been sold at Macy's in the U.S. and Selfridges in Britain. The Haitian artists who make them receive 25 per cent of the retail price, a much higher margin from the sales of their products than they would otherwise get. The project also received $750,000 in funding over the past two years from the Canadian International Development Agency – now under the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.

Rogers donated the airtime for the ad, which will run on television until Dec. 31.

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