Passengers in the city center Toronto Metro station have recently been greeted by a color-coded set in Calgary, as part of a new effort to encourage visitors to the city.
Although TMU station is not where Laura Carwardine usually gets off the train, the pallet prompted a detour on her journey to take a closer look.
“I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had taken over the entire station with a wide range of colors and a series of Calgary references,” she told Global News in an interview on Wednesday.
These references in large black letters on top of solid color backgrounds included phrases such as “The World’s Friendliest Yellow City”, “Mmm, Ginger Calf Red” and “Two-Step Denim Blue” in each advertising space on the station.
The colorful campaign hit home for Carwardine, she said, as the local designer is originally from Calgary. She took one video of the screen which has since garnered nearly 90,000 views on social media.
“It’s very much related to the way I think about photography anyway, to the point where I was like, ‘Who else is this campaign for but me?'” she joked. “Just happy to bring it exposure because I think it’s a cool concept.”
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The concept is part of a six-week advertising campaign by Tourism Calgary titled “Colors of Calgary“; at more than $500,000, it is one of the largest campaigns the organization has ever done.
Jeff Hessel, senior vice-president of marketing and destination development at Tourism Calgary, noted that it’s part of a multi-year push to attract more visitors from Ontario.
“There are a lot of people out there who traveled more, traveled longer, spent more in their destinations and there are a lot of people in Toronto who have shown interest in Calgary,” he said. “But they don’t know who we are.”
According to Hessel, the campaign was meant to showcase more of what the “Blue Sky City,” as it’s known, has to offer by making Torontonians aware of the messiness of Calgary and the Rockies.
The campaign uses color palettes to tell stories of Calgary’s “dynamic nature,” Hessel said, with references to local craft breweries, as well as the sunshine, food scene and local parks.
“The main objective of this campaign was to raise awareness that Calgary is a great urban destination in Canada that people in Toronto don’t know about,” Hessel told Global News. “We’ve had great success on the website, we’ve seen three times as many people from Toronto on the website.”
It follows an 8.5 per cent increase in tourism spending in Calgary from Ontario by 2025, an increase equal to $22 million, following advertising campaigns last year.
A free trip to Calgary was the grand prize, which has been awarded ever since.
When asked about the campaign Wednesday, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said he was in support of the effort.
“I’m a strong supporter of these guerrilla marketing tactics,” he said. “Having Calgary on the map for events, not just like the Stampede, but year-round, is the way to be able to demonstrate that our economy is successful.”
Tourism officials will return to Toronto this fall with another campaign targeting winter events in the city.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
