Grant Gordon’s marketing firm has a simple slogan. It’s a powerful one too: “Branding the good guys”.
Grant worked for a decade in advertising firms after graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in English literature.
He came to realize the only way to do the creative work he wanted for the clients he believed in was to break away from the mainstream. He created Key Gordon Communications Inc., one of the first advertising firms in North America to focus exclusively on branding ethical and environmentally friendly products and causes.
Grant and his firm have been responsible for cutting-edge marketing for preeminent non-profit organizations. Since 2001, he has done projects for ENGOs ranging from WWF and Environmental Defence to the David Suzuki Foundation, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, CPAWS and Georgian Bay Forever.
Three years ago, Grant and his firm created the phenomenally successful global-warming-awareness campaign, FLICK OFF. The campaign went viral, rallying a generation to recognize the inconvenient truth of climate change—and to take action. Sir Richard Branson liked the initiative so much, he came to Toronto to launch it personally. Partners included Environmental Defence, MuchMusic and Roots. Then the David Suzuki Foundation joined in, and David himself climbed aboard the FLICK OFF EXPRESS, a train tour of university campuses. Grant’s work has won major international awards in New York and Los Angeles.
Over the years, Key Gordon’s clients have grown to include prominent art and philanthropic organizations. Grant spends the day (and many late nights) fighting for cleaner air, cleaner water, cleaner food, better nutrition, better education and more art!
Gordon is a businessperson who respects the planet. And he’s an environmentalist who gets the way to sustainability is through protecting people, the planet and profits. That combination of caring for social policy, the environment and the economy is what attracted Gordon to the Liberal Party; it’s the only party that gets all three right.
He often says, with a wink, one of the reasons he cares about global warming is the threat it poses to shinny. He’s hockey mad, and so are his three sons. Check out his video on how hockey is like Liberalism: it’s about passing the puck and playing as a team.
Fairness matters to Gordon. Caring for people is vitally important to him. He’s often said the one thing that finally pushed him to run was how many kids in the riding go to school hungry. He’s deeply engaged in the local community.
Gordon and his wife Gill Deacon are raising their family right in the heart of the riding, and it shows: a canvass often involves meeting someone from yoga or a son’s schoolmate or the guy who fixes broken bike pedals.
Gordon wants to be MP for Toronto-Danforth to care for the people of the riding, for the planet and for profits, ensuring everyone earns enough in a sustainable way by marketing local businesses.
A local dad, he’ll be a local champion as MP, with the kind of leadership we need in the riding and in Ottawa.
