Feature image source: PC Health
PC Health case study: the good, the bad, and the dystopian
September 18, 2026
Well, this has certainly been an interesting week.
PC Health, a division of Canadian grocery giant Loblaw Companies Limited (or just Loblaw for short), recently dropped an ad via a 1000+ drone show promoting their new AI chatbot. Like many other Torontonians, I have thoughts on it, both as a consumer and as someone in the industry.
I couldn’t possibly have picked a better topic for my inaugural blog post. Let’s get into it.
The ad
The ad that sparked the controversy du jour aired Thursday, September 10th in the form of an LED drone show on the Toronto waterfront. The ad, inspired by the questions Canadians find themselves asking late at night, displayed a list of health-related questions viewers were urged to ask PC Health’s new AI chatbot.
[source: Instagram (@dronelightshowcanada)]
Questions like “Do I really need 8 hours of sleep?” and “Can melatonin lose its effect?” appeared like they were being typed out in the sky in a 15-minute display around 11pm. Onlookers were largely outraged that this display turned out to be an advertisement and took to social media to voice their frustration.
The context
While cause for concern in its own right, this incident is just the most recent in a years-long string of less-than-positive Loblaw PR.
The Weston family jewel is no stranger to public scrutiny. They’ve become a popular target of backlash for their massive profits in a time of rapidly increasing food prices, a major sore spot for struggling Canadians. I’d rather not get too into the weeds here, or else we’d be here all day.
In a nutshell, there’s layers of consumer resentment built up over years, kind of like the strata you see in sedimentary rock. Loblaw already had a lot of work to do to repair their brand-consumer relationship, and feedback from Torontonians proved that this ad was a giant step in the wrong direction.
The controversy
Loblaw said in a statement that the drone display was carefully considered to minimise brightness and disruption, but many aren’t buying it. Concerns have been raised over its intrusive nature and the exponentially more dangerous distraction it poses to drivers than standard highway billboards.
Additionally, for many, it’s a tipping point for how many ads is “too many.” For context, the average consumer is exposed to an estimated 6,000-10,000 advertising messages per day across all its forms. This figure is only likely to increase over time with the advent and implementation of new ad technologies. For consumers, this means less authentic content, more ways for brands to get around ad blockers, and having to choose whether to pay more money to avoid them, or pay with their data to access “free” content.
All this to say, ad fatigue is alive and well. A highly intrusive message like this one is not going to curry favour with an already overstimulated crowd. And that goes double for a crowd that doesn’t like your brand all that much in the first place.
The impact
This ad also leaves a much larger impact beyond Loblaw. Torontonians are worried about the kind of precedent this sets for ads going forward.
Just a quick reminder: Loblaw had the proper permits and permissions in place, meaning they had full legal clearance to run the ad. The question that follows, then, is could drone advertising become a new industry norm?
The answer is currently a little nebulous. The City of Toronto released a statement saying that while they greenlit the ad, they weren’t informed that it was Loblaw behind it. Spokesperson Nicole Janowski says that they’re updating their booking requirements so that this information must be disclosed for future bookings, which isn’t the outright ban that locals are calling for.
The lesson
I want to talk like an advertiser for a minute, so bear with me. Non-traditional marketing like this is tricky, because you have to really take advantage of the medium you’re choosing. The best examples I’ve seen use it in a way that can’t be replicated in any other format.
To show you what I mean, let’s talk about a brand that’s historically done this really well.
[source: YouTube (@WestJet)]
This WestJet Christmas ad is one of my favourite examples of non-traditional marketing. Having passengers scan their boarding pass to get a one-on-one conversation with Santa is already enough to make a customer feel special, but the presents that awaited them at their destination is customer service on another level entirely. You can’t capture that same magic with an out-of-home or social ad, for example. Non-traditional was the clear choice here.
And not to rub salt in the Loblaw wound or anything, but the feedback for the WestJet ad was spectacular. Millions of views within days of its launch, international fame, and boatloads (or, planeloads?) of the kind of goodwill that money can’t buy.
The point being: marketing in any form isn’t always about the tech, it’s about how it makes your customers feel.
It’s advertising like this that makes the PC Health ad feel lacklustre. For all the technical impressiveness of a drone show, there’s nothing innovative or emotionally resonant about their message, at least nothing that would make a drone show the best medium for it. It could be replicated in something like a display ad or a web banner and no one would bat an eye.
[Image source for transit shelter mockup: Freepik]
Above: a couple (very rough) mockups with the same message reformatted for a social media ad, a digital transit shelter poster, and a web banner. These don’t look out of place, and I’d argue they’re a better fit for what PC Health is trying to say.
Moreover, questions about having trouble sleeping being displayed in a 1000+ drone show in the middle of the night is a little ironic, and more than a little tone-deaf.
The takeaways
So, what can we learn about non-traditional marketing from this PC Health ad?
- Start your brand-consumer relationship on the right foot. Gestures of goodwill go a long way. Think John F. Kennedy: “ask not what your customers can do for you, ask what you can do for your customers” … or something. That is what he said, right?
- If you’re opting for the non-traditional route, make the magic of your ad impossible to replicate in other formats.
- If the feedback you hear from your ad even remotely resembles “dystopian” or “makes people anxious about the future,” it’s probably a bad sign.
Let’s talk ads
Good ads inform our choices. Great ads stick with us forever. Modern tech enables advertisers to get really creative with the “where” and “how” of their messaging, which makes it all the more disappointing to see PC Health fumble the landing.
Got your own thoughts on this? Is there another campaign you want me to cover? Connect with me and let’s talk about it!
*No Gen AI was used in the making of this blog post*