Canadian Olympic Committee to athletes: Try hard

During the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Canada had its best showing on record. Our athletes racked up 26 medals, including our first gold on home turf and one heart-stopping hockey game that provided some of the best action our unofficial national sport has to offer.

Hoping to build on that momentum, the Canadian Olympic Committee has unveiled a new advertising campaign on Monday, encouraging our competitors to "Give [Their] Everything" whether they're in the arena or exhibiting the best in good sportsmanship off the field.

As CTV News reports, the committee's chief marketing officer Derek Kent introduced their "Tout Donner" multimedia campaign in Montreal, where he explained the impetus behind the catchphrase.

"Tout Donner is the ultimate expression of the dedication our Canadian athletes show every minute, every hour of every day in their pursuit of their Olympic goals," he told reporters.

"We are pleased and proud that we are unveiling this unprecedented campaign in the city that hosted Canada's first Olympic Games."

The English-language version of the campaign was unveiled later in the day.

The slogan, while clearly designed to inspire, seems to take for granted that to even qualify for the Olympics our athletes have already been doing just that for most of their lives, and probably weren't planning to stop any time soon either.

Perhaps "Don't forget to jump high" or "Just have fun with it" had already been bandied around the meeting room.

But when you consider the criticism generated by the more direct command to "Own the Podium" in Vancouver, the committee appears to be adopting a gentler, more inclusive tone.

As the National Post noted at the time, the "Own the Podium" program had many questioning its effectiveness in 2010 and even more blasting the catchphrase as unsportsmanlike.

One writer slammed the program for embodying characteristically "un-Canadian" qualities like being "presumptuous, boastful and brash to the point of arrogance" while in what can only be described as deliberate trolling, another went so far as to blame it for the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

Whatever the motivation, the campaign will be ubiquitous for the next three months in the lead-up to the London 2012 Games.

A video spot featuring Montreal band We Are Wolves debuted Monday night during the NHL playoffs broadcast, and officials said they plan to keep the campaign's momentum going all year round instead of just once every two years.

Sports fans will want to be on the lookout for favourites like divers Alexandre Despatie and Emilie Heymans, the Canadian Women's Soccer Team, the Men's Eight Rowing Team, and rower Adam van Koeverden, all of whom are slotted to make campaign appearances.