Canada's Top Ad Creatives Have a Go at Each Other in Edelman's 'Between Two Shortlists'

Canadians are rumored to be nice, but this new Between Two Ferns parody puts that notion to rest—they’re as backbiting as the rest of us, at least in the ad industry.

There’s been only two actual Between Two Ferns episodes since 2014. But Edelman, the global PR consultancy firm, has now stepped into the void with its B2F parody, “Between Two Shortlists.” You see, Edelman made the shortlist this year for Strategy magazine’s Agency of the Year honors—for the first time since 2019. Those two shortlists frame the action in the video above, in which Andrew Simon, Edelman’s global creative director—doing his best Zach Galifianakis—slings insults at a who’s who of top Canadian ad creatives (though it’s Angus Tucker, ex-CCO of john st, who lands the best one-liner).

Industry-skewering parodies have been a tradition for years at Strategy’s Agency of the Year event. (Every shortlisted AOY agency is invited to make one.) Another video from this year’s event, held earlier this week, has already gone mini-viral in the industry—Zulu Alpha Kilo’s pitch-perfect take on advertising’s obsession with awards.