The Quebec government has launched a new series of ads touting the benefits of speaking French.
The campaign is called On Parle Français, and is aimed directly at anglophones, with the tagline, "good things happen when you speak French".
Broadcaster and former Montreal Canadiens tough guy P.J. Stock appears in one of the spots, telling of how a French TV station in Montreal asked him to become a panelist on one of their hockey broadcasts, based on his work in the anglophone media.
In the 30-second spot, he says that while he took French immersion classes in school, it wasn't broadcast-ready — though he suggests his bosses appreciated the effort he made.
For the last few years, he's been a contributor to the RDS hockey pundit program L'Antichambre.
Stock told CJAD 800's Leslie Roberts that he agreed to sign on to this campaign, because of its approach — it promotes the use of French without tearing down other languages.
"One of the issues that I've had with our province...is how sometimes they find a way to shove [French] at us...throw it at us," Stock says. "And it actually backfires. It deters people. So when this campaign came along...I loved it. I loved the idea. I loved the way it came out."
Another spot done for the campaign depicts Toronto-born singer Judi Richards, who testified that she got plenty of work, and found the love of her life — legendary Quebec comedian Yvon Deschamps, to whom she's been married since 1971 — because she speaks French.