Martin Masson and Roland Nadeau, Chairman of the Board and General Director of MIELS Québec respectively, receive the cheque from Essor Insurance presented by Ross Gagné, Head of Marketing.

Montreal, June 4, 2009 – Essor Insurance, one of the leading insurance brokerage firms in Quebec, contributed to the financing of the Mouvement d’information et d’entraide dans la lutte contre les infections transmissibles sexuellement et par le sang (ITSS) et le sida à Québec (MIELS-Québec — Information and assistance movement in the fight against sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, including AIDS, in Quebec), a non-profit organization committed to preventing AIDS and providing support to individuals living with the virus.

On May 27, Ross Gagné, head of Essor’s Marketing Department, visited the directors of the organization to hand them a cheque and congratulate them, on behalf of the company, for their excellent work. In so doing, Essor Insurance was honouring a promise it had made last April at the launch of a particularly daring advertising campaign.

In fact, the firm had come up with a head-turning billboard campaign: positioned along strategic communication arteries throughout Quebec, these ads showed a condom in the form of a house in its wrapping, along with the message: Protégez ce que vous avez de plus précieux (Protect your most precious values).

An advertising billboard that drew more than its share of attention.

“Thanks to this campaign, we were able to remind the public that the condom remains the best form of protection against sexually transmitted infections and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We also decided to contribute to the financing of organizations involved in the research and prevention of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections as well as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),” explains Ross Gagné, spokesperson for Essor Insurance.



This support is highly appreciated by officials of MIELS-Quebec, given the current economic climate, which constantly requires them to do more with less. In short, a great story demonstrating that advertising can lead to good deeds.