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Coors pulls controversial ad after complaints from search and rescue community

Molson Coors Canada has pulled a controversial advertisement from the air and online after accusations it was encouraging people to go skiing and snowboarding out of bounds. North Shore Rescue team leader Mike Danks and the B.C.
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A Coors ad that has since been pulled after complaints it encouraged out of bounds skiing and snowboarding. photo supplied Youtube

Molson Coors Canada has pulled a controversial advertisement from the air and online after accusations it was encouraging people to go skiing and snowboarding out of bounds.

North Shore Rescue team leader Mike Danks and the B.C. Search and Rescue Association both condemned the ad on Tuesday, which asked viewers if they would “brave going out of bounds” and depicted a group of skiers and snowboarders skipping past a resort boundary and down a slope through the trees to a waiting helicopter.

Sending the message that out-of-bounds skiing and snowboarding is cool was contrary to everything the volunteer rescue organizations had been trying to get out to the public, they both said.

A 40-year-old Surrey man died in late January when he fell into the Montizambert Creek drainage area while snowboarding out of bounds at Cypress Mountain.

But the campaign was only meant to “highlight the fact that any moment can be an opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and find adventure,” said Greg Vallentin, manager of public relations for Molson Coors Canada in an email statement.

“We have the utmost respect for our drinkers, and the thousands of search and rescue professionals across Canada who risk their lives daily and would never want to make light of a situation that could, or has, negatively impacted someone, or their friends and families.”

The company will be re-evaluating the ad and immediately pulling it, the statement continued.

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A Coors ad that has since been pulled after complaints it encouraged out of bounds skiing and snowboarding. photo supplied Youtube

It has since disappeared from the Coors Youtube page.

Coors will also be donating to the Search and Rescue Association to fund training, support and public education on outdoor safety, according to the statement, although it did not say how much or when.

Under the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, ads must not “display a disregard for safety by depicting situations that might reasonably be interpreted as encouraging unsafe or dangerous practices, or acts.”

Although, since Molson Coors Canada has pulled the ad, there will be no investigation according to Janet Feasby, vice-president, standards for the council.

The ad was produced by local marketing firm Rethink Canada.