Chad Conrad is confident that late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will drink a Caesar on Canada Day.
Conrad, owner of the Mr. Mike’s SteakhouseCasual in Duncan, said the ongoing campaign to convince Kimmel to drink a Caesar, Canada’s national cocktail, on Canada Day seems to be paying off.
He said thousands of Canadians have become involved with the effort since the Mr. Mike’s SteakhouseCasual franchise in Canada challenged Kimmel to drink a Caesar on Canada Day three weeks ago on National Caesar Day.
Participation in the “Caesar Challenge” has ranged from watching the challenge video on YouTube, sending postcards to Kimmel on the www.clamup.ca website, face swapping with Kimmel on Snapchat and even tweeting Kimmel directly to convince him to step up to the challenge on July 1.
Conrad said the idea was first raised when the franchise owners met with the Mr. Mike’s SteakhouseCasual ownership group six months ago.
“It seems to have gone over really well,” he said.
“We’re getting word that Kimmel loves the promotion. We’re looking at renting a monster truck and dumping thousands of challenge ballots in the parking lot at his studio in California on Canada Day to help convince him to drink a Caesar.”
Taji Brand Group takes on challenge of Valley strategy
The Taiji Brand Group from Maple Bay has been awarded the contract from the Tourism Cowichan Society to develop a brand strategy to boost tourism in the Cowichan Valley.
The Cowichan Valley Regional District recently approved a five-year agreement with the society in which it will receive $120,000 per year to deliver regional tourism marketing.
The TCS has also accessed $138,000 in funding from Destination BC to assist the tourism initiative.
Janet Docherty, chairwoman of the TCS, said the new brand strategy needs to be robust and tell the valley’s story well, while dovetailing with the efforts of Destination BC.
“The people at the Taiji Brand Group are adept brand storytellers and they’re skilled in a number of other disciplines,” she said. “In the end, we felt they were best equipped for the task.”
The Taiji Brand Group was one of five proponents vying for the contract.
Rocky Creek takes top prize times two for Wild Blackberry
Rocky Creek Winery has won two “double gold” medals in recent wine competitions for its celebrated Wild Blackberry wine.
That brings to 80 the number of awards and medals the winery has received for its products at national and international competitions since 2006.
The extremely rare double gold honours, which signify that the wine is best in its category, came from the All Canadian Wine Championships and the Northwest Wine Summit.
“This represents the culmination of 11 years of extremely hard work and determination to produce wines of the highest quality,” said Linda Holford, owner of Rocky Creek Winery.
“I’m so proud to represent the Cowichan Valley in these competitions and help raise the profile of our Cowichan Valley wineries across the country and around the world.”
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com