Article content continued

Enbridge is the dominant shipper of oilsands crude and plans to build the contentious Northern Gateway pipeline to the West Coast.

“We have enjoyed working with them and respect their decision,” said Enbridge spokesman Graham White in an email.

Tim Hortons declined to comment.

The spots had been airing for close to three weeks on Tims TV at more than 1,500 locations between British Columbia and Ontario. The campaign was to have lasted four weeks.

SumOfUs, a global group that targets well-known brands, started an online petition on Wednesday afternoon pressing Tim Hortons to stop “shilling” for the oilsands industry.

By the time senior SumOfUs campaigner Emma Pullman woke up Thursday morning, the ad was taken down. Some 28,000 people had signed the petition as of Thursday afternoon.

“Tim Hortons, though it’s not a Canadian company anymore, has built itself a really strong place in the hearts and minds of Canadians,” said Pullman.

The Enbridge brand does not enjoy the same support, she added.

“The kind of overwhelming response to the campaign shows that they couldn’t pull it off, it didn’t work,” she said.

“I think that what it shows is that Enbridge has to do a lot more than make some fancy commercials to win the hearts and minds of Canadians.”

Tim Hortons was recently taken over by 3G Capital, a Brazilian investment firm that merged the operations with Burger King and now owns roughly 70 per cent of the combined company.

A May 18 blog post on Enbridge’s website touts its Tims TV campaign.

“We didn’t roast the coffee beans. We didn’t stir the soup. We didn’t box up a baker’s dozen. But we did help produce that perfect Tim’s percolation. When your energy meets ours, java joy happens,” it says.

The post has links to Enbridge ads showing kids taking a bus to a school field trip and families on beach vacations, with the tag line “Life Takes Energy.”

The Canadian Press, with files from the National Post