Loblaws boycott: Canadians cheer fake No Name cake ad that spoofs grocery giant, Galen Weston — 'Eat the rich'

A fake No Name advertisement postered to a Calgary bus shelter is just the latest in a series of satirical attacks on Loblaw and its branding, as the grocery giant is the target of a national boycott started by a Reddit group called "Loblaws Is Out of Control."

The “ad” looks similar to the familiar No Name branding with straightforward messaging and bright yellow colour, except it features the word “Peasants” above a box of chocolate cake that is labeled “Let them eat cake deluxe cake mix” in both French and English. At the bottom, a suggested serving encourages bakers to “Eat the Rich."

No surprise Loblaw's 'unbranded' brand is being targeted: Expert

Brad Davis is an associate professor of marketing at Wilfrid Laurier University. He says No Name, which was launched by Loblaw in 1978, is meant as a no frills, in-store “unbranded” brand.

It’s intended to give customers straight pricing competition, while allowing the grocery giant to save on having to pay middlemen. That way, they can invest on improving the quality of the products by keeping it in-house.

“They serve a purpose of being a discount brand for (products) where most people don’t perceive there’s a significant difference between the No Name brand and more expensive, well-known brands,” David tells Yahoo Canada.

In turn, the company will promote the in-house brands more, so they are able to make more money off of them.

Davis says it’s not surprising that the No Name brand is being targeted in the midst of the ongoing national boycott of Loblaw and its affiliated stores, like Shoppers Drug Mart, Zehrs, Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills and the flagship Loblaws. The boycott was organized for the month of May by the "Loblaws Is Out of Control" Reddit group, and has been extended indefinitely.

Davis classifies the fake No Name ad as “subvertising,” or subversive advertising, which is a spoof or parody of corporate advertisement with the intention of making a statement.

“There is a whole underground mentality that takes shots at brands and a lot of the marketing stuff, and now with Photoshop, some of the quality of the graffiti they do is very professional,” he says.

A notable example is Adbusters, a Vancouver-based anti-consumerist media company known for its subversive advertising. Some of the brands targeted by Adbusters have included Coca Cola and Nike.

Loblaw has been spoofed before: 'Roblaws' T-shirts and more merch

This is not the first time Loblaw branding has been a target of satirical criticism. In February, Toronto-based artist Christopher Lambe produced a series of T-shirts, buttons and magnets that feature a pun on Loblaws and a play on the store's tagline. The merchandise featured the word "Roblaw$" with the S replaced by a dollar sign. The tagline, originally "Live Life Well," was altered to "Live Life Hungry." The parodic logo was changed to an image of a gun and a basket.

After uploading the inventory to his Etsy account, Lambe was hit by an Intellectual Properties infringement case filed to the online retailer by the Loblaw corporation, and the merch was taken down.

After Lambe challenged the takedown, he says Etsy never gave evidence of his violation, so he put the shirts back up on his account.

Lambe has since expanded his merchandise to include T-shirts that parody Shoppers Drug Mart, which read “Shoppers Thug Mart” and “Westons Lack Heart” and are being sold on another website.

He tells Yahoo Canada that he has sold over 2,000 shirts so far.

Canadians react to No Name parody cake ad: 'The satire is rich and moist'

The poster, which was shared to the Reddit forum "Loblaws Is Out of Control," has garnered more than 8,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments. Though the artist responsible for the ad has not made themselves known, Canadians ran to their defense and have already offered to start a crowd-funding campaign for their creativity.

“Cake mix, $1; Ingredients you have to add, $15,” Frosty-Cap3344 wrote.

“The satire is rich and moist,” Longjumping-Bag-8260 wrote.

"I really love the use of the big bold 'peasants' at the top," user cinnamon_sparkle27 wrote. "This design is so well done that at first glance you would actually think it’s a legitimate Loblaws ad."