iPolitics, a Canada-based news and politics analysis site, recently released details of a promo spending report from the Canadian government, which included a list of the promotional products bought by the government from September 2016 through the end of 2017. The government did not give a grand total of expenditures across all departments, but numbers look to be in the millions, according to iPolitics. The report was released following a request by Conservative MP Arnold Viersen, who had asked for a list of spending on promo items and giveaways.

For Canada 150 celebrations last July, for example, the government handed out 5.8 million rub-on tattoos, 150,000 glow sticks, 2.6 million flags and 20,000 luggage tags, according to documents released in Parliament. The exact cost wasn’t listed.

Between September 2016 and December 2017, the Communications Security Establishment, the country’s national cryptologic agency, bought 1,500 rubber ducks at a total of $5,375 to use for recruiting. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission spent $10,847 on “‘nuclear watchdog’ fidget toy dogs” and $27,037 on USB keys.

Also on the list was lots of maple syrup. Destination Canada purchased 144 bottles for a “sales event,” while the Royal Canadian Mint bought 50 bottles for a European bullion distributors conference, to the tune of $1,750. The Bank of Canada bought $1,250 worth of “maple syrup/candy sampler[s]” for the Central Bank Executive Summit and Central Bank IT Exchange meeting, and the Public Sector Pension Investment board bought $3,050 worth of “maple products” for a “meeting with peers.”

The country’s central bank also doled out almost $8,500 on 2,000 Rubix cubes to hand out at events like Geek Week Ottawa and Cyber SCI Challenges in Ottawa and Montreal. Meanwhile, the report found that branded writing instruments alone cost approximately $200,000 over the 16 months.

While the reported numbers look high, Ann Baiden, president of Innovatex Solutions Inc. (asi/231194) in Richmond Hill, ON, says it’s difficult to judge if the products were worth their cost or not without knowing more about the individual campaign objectives.

“Most would agree that some form of government advertising is both acceptable and required,” she told ASI Canada. “Promotional products remain the most cost-effective form per impression, so they’re a good choice. But in order to determine if it was a good use of their budget, one would need to know the intended goal of the individual products. What form of ROI were they looking to achieve, and did they meet their goal?” 

View the complete list from iPolitics here.