Toronto, day two

Cory and I are back home after our two days in Toronto. On day two we met first with the ad agencies representing Ford trucks and Dodge trucks. (Photo one shows Cory on Bloor Street arranging meetings. I took a bunch of photos of Cory and he got tired of my camera in his face. I won't show you the photo where he's giving me the one finger salute.)

At noon or so we met with Honda's ad agency, called Grip. Its office is near the intersection of John and Queen Streets, location of the MuchMusic building. Grip creates the advertisements and ad strategies for Honda as well as for Kokanee beer. The "does the Ranger live or die?" concept for Kokanee is their work. But Cory wasn't there to get beer ads in Grainews. He was there to remind them that farmers buy ATVs, generators and trucks — things that Honda produces.

Toronto ad agencies use their offices to express their creativee potential, and Grip's office was my favourite. The receptionist's desk on the sixth floor looked a bit like a big tire, and beside the "tire" was a long orange slide — yes, a slide — to the meeting rooms on the fifth floor. They also had stairs for people who think slides are lame. Cory took the stairs. I took the slide.

After lunch at Tabaq halal restaurant we visited Quarry Integrated Communications, the Mississauga-based agency for BASF. Then we drove a few kilometres down the 401 to Dupont's Canadian headquarters where we met with Joanne Hewitson and Travis Schoonbaert.

Travis and I both went to school in Deloraine, Man., and it's good to see him doing so well with Dupont. (Travis is on the right in photo two. I'm on the left.) I asked him what is new and exciting with the company. Precison Pac is one thing. He's meeting with our man Lee Hart in Alberta in October to demonstrate the Precision Pac system for blending herbicides to suit the weed spectrum and exact acreage in a field. But Travis is also excited about the prospects for rynaxypyr, the new insecticide active ingredient that is already registered as Coragen for potatoes and Altacor for apples and grapes. Travis expects registration for use on canola and forage crops within the next couple of years.