To promote his house brand on social networks, Maxi was obviously inspired by Ginette Reno's hit Des croissants de soleil, but tried not to mention him by name. The grocer bragged about finding a way to avoid paying royalties. A marketing stunt that was intended to be funny, but was heavily denounced by the music community.
“Our President's Choice all-butter croissants are so good, you'll want to sing the famous song about croissants that we can't mention for copyright reasons,” we read on the supermarket chain's Facebook page last week.
The post, which has since been removed, was accompanied by a photomontage showing croissants in the sun. “Can someone please sing it in the comments? » we asked mockingly.
Suffice it to say, this ad left little room for interpretation. It was actually Des croissants de soleil, a well-known catchy tune sung by Ginette Reno, that we were referring to.
The Association of Musical Publishing Professionals (APEM) challenged Maxi directly on the issue on Facebook on Friday: “Anyone who sells croissants should know that you need money to buy them.” 10/10 for finding another option , using a song to promote without paying royalties, but 0/10 for supporting the music industry which is starving these days. »
The APEM did not fail to point out that Loblaw, Maxi's parent company, boasts impressive financial profits, enough to acquire the rights to a Quebec song for an advertisement.
Ginette Reno didn't respond. Composer Jean Robitaille told Le Devoir on Monday that Maxi made a “serious mistake” when he bragged about circumventing copyright law. “What shocks me about this is that we laugh at copyright. As if it were ridiculous to have to pay rights holders to use their works. It’s a huge lack of respect,” he said.
Loblaw eventually apologized to Mr. Robitaille. In an email to Le Devoir, the company assured that it did not want to offend anyone. “We are reviewing our processes internally to ensure that such errors do not happen again,” it said.
Willingness to take risks
Since the beginning of the collaboration with the LG2 agency, Maxi is characterized by an irreverent tone in its social networks and in its advertising. A willingness to take risks that is generally well received, but has also gotten the company into trouble. In May 2020, the company removed one of its ads featuring Martin Matte after it was described as “gross-phobic” by some groups.
Note that neither LG2 nor Maxi had previously contacted Jean Robitaille so that his song could be used in a release. “If that had been the case, we would certainly have said yes. This wouldn't have been the first time Crescents of the Sun had been used in an advertisement or film. “It’s really not complicated to get the rights for this song, and it’s not very expensive either,” explains the now 80-year-old composer.
Jean Robitaille composed songs for several artists, but “Des croissants de soleil” from 1974 remains his greatest success. He recalls that in certain years he had already received more than $100,000 in royalties. All of that is now a thing of the distant past, even though he says he only received $4,000 for his compositions last year.
“Copyright is being circumvented more and more frequently. It brings in much less than before. The rules are less strict. Digital platforms bring almost nothing. Maxi's case is not an isolated one. “This shows how little consideration we have for the rights holders,” he complains.