Toys’R’Us Canada and agency, Broken Heart Love Affair, are campaigning to bring back imaginary friends. Sadly, their numbers are declining. Screens are doing all the imagining, leaving children bereft of the playmates that once fuelled creative play.

In a 2019 survey of daycare staff in the UK, 72% of respondents said that fewer children have imaginary friends than they did five years ago, while 63% indicated that they thought screens are making children less imaginative.

The partners are hoping to bring back imaginary friends — one Mr Ferguson at a time. The Imagination Included campaign is the first work by Broken Heart Love Affair for Toys’R’Us Canada since winning the business earlier this year.

“When a child picks up a toy, it only comes to life through their imagination. As Canada’s dedicated toy and baby retailer, we have the tools to make sure that children can do that. When a child walks through our doors watching the wonder and amazement in their eyes is like magic, their world of make-believe becomes real. We are focused more than ever on encouraging imaginative play and nurturing this development in children,” stated Allyson Banks, director of marketing with Toys’R’Us Canada.

The hero commercial leads a broader campaign designed to provide Toys’R’Us with an ownable platform by presenting it as a leading facilitator of play, an increasingly overlooked component of childhood that can play a crucial role in fostering imagination and creativity, problem-solving and developing new ideas that can even help societies adapt, grow, and progress. When fostered in children, it can last a lifetime.

“As a parent of two young kids and a creative myself, the stat about the dwindling number of childhood friends really freaked me out,” commented BHLA chief creative officer, Craig McIntosh. “I instantly raced to Toys ‘R’ Us to load up on action figures and other toys without manuals, so I could stoke the fires of my kid’s imaginations.”

“This is just the beginning of our partnership,” Banks added. “The ‘Imagination Included’ platform is a long-term strategy that is still in its infancy. Our imaginations are going wild thinking about what’s to come.”

Credits:
Client: Toys’R’Us Canada
Director, Marketing: Allyson Banks
Creative Director: Salvatore Stranges

Agency: Broken Heart Love Affair
Chief Creative Officers: Craig McIntosh, Jaimes Zentil
Strategy: Kristy Pleckaitis, Jay Chaney
Account Team: Cass Farry, Maegan Thomas 
Executive Producer: Erica Metcalfe 
Junior Producer: Olivia Cousineau

Production Company: The Salmon 
Executive Producer: Natalia Winardi
Director: Mike Warzin
Director of Photography: Barry Parrell
Line Producer: Rory Halsall
Production Designer: Jeremy Macfarlane
Wardrobe Stylist: Melissa Shouldice

Casting: Mann Casting
Casting Director: Steven Mann

Editorial: Saints Editorial 
Executive Producers: Michelle Rich, Mackenzie Goodwin
Editor: Griff Henderson
Assistant Editor: Sam Rousseau

VFX: The Vanity
Executive Producer: Stephanie Pennington
VFX Artist: Kaelem Cahill
Producer: Katie Oliver

Colour: The Vanity
Colourist: Andrew Exworth

Audio House: Berkeley
Creative Director: Jared Kuemper
Mix & Sound Design: Jared Kuemper

Media Agency: Prospect Media Group