They went to Délı̨nę for a TV ad and got more than they bargained for

“I’m glad you guys are supporting the arenas and supporting youth in sports and stuff like that. But there’s something else you need to know.”

Imagine being a Quaker Oats executive when Danny Gaudet, leader of Délı̨nę, said those words.

Here you are, in a place that calls itself the birthplace of hockey. The crew of a Sir John Franklin expedition is said to have played the game on Great Bear Lake’s ice in 1825.

You’ve come all this way, you’re investing money in renovating the arena kitchen, and you’re even filming a TV commercial about it. (You can watch the ad lower down this page.)

What else would you need to know? Is whatever’s coming next going to wreck the whole thing?

They needn’t have worried.

What Gaudet wanted them to know is… Délı̨nę and its 700 residents love oats.

“Your oats have been a staple for people for generations,” Gaudet recalls telling Quaker Oats bosses who had made the trip and now could hardly believe their luck.

“I used to eat it when I was a kid, but we didn’t eat it just for breakfast. We had it in our duck soup, geese soup, caribou soup – any kind of soup, we had it in there, and they were just blown away by that.”

To prove it, Gaudet arranged a supper at an Elder’s house where the Quaker Oats visitors were fed oats in a range of dishes that rely on country food.

“It’s light,” said Gaudet. “We can carry it with us when we’re travelling in the bush. It’s delicious, too. They were quite amazed.”

Logan Chambers, Quaker’s senior director of marketing, was predictably thrilled to discover he was pushing on an open door.

“They talked about how they would make oatmeal balls as a good source of energy for people out on the lake fishing or out on a hunting trip. That was really powerful for us to learn,” said Chambers.

“We wanted to make sure we were going a place where Quaker is already part of the community, not force our way in.”

New kitchen, new ovens

Quaker came to be in Délı̨nę because a similar campaign – refurbishing an arena kitchen in a small Ontario town – had gone well the year before.

The company said it had thrown out the kitchen’s unhealthy items and installed a brand new kitchen and concessions area with snacks Quaker makes, which it believes are the healthier option.

When Quaker staff asked friends at Sportsnet where to go next to repeat the trick, the TV team remembered coming to Délı̨nę on a side trip when Hockey Day in Canada was hosted by Yellowknife in 2020.

“Apparently, Sportsnet never forgot about us,” said Gaudet.

Chambers and co, lured by Délı̨nę’s claim to hockey history, came up in August to film. A northern company was hired to do the work of renovating the kitchen at the Sahtu community’s arena.

“It feels homely now. It feels like you’re at a kitchen at home,” said Gaudet.

“They have two ovens in there. Before, we had one – sometimes it would work, sometimes it didn’t work. The ventilation system in there is way better now. The refrigerator system is way better. You can store more, there’s more kitchen space. It’s just really warm and welcoming.”

Chambers said the community, never mind the kitchen, is warm and welcoming.

“I had never been anywhere in the Northwest Territories before. It was an amazing experience, as a Canadian, to see a different part of our country,” he said.

“The connection to the land was incredibly inspiring, and how everybody in that community comes together, how they help each other out, how they celebrate together, have fun together.”

A Quaker TV commercial featuring Délı̨nę began running in Canada on Monday. It ends with the slogan Sahtú Nátse, meaning “Sahtu strong,” strapped across the screen.

This Saturday, Hockey Night in Canada will air an extended three-minute segment in which former NHLer turned Sportsnet broadcaster Colby Armstrong visits the community.

“It’s amazing to realize that you can just talk about something and it becomes a reality in everybody’s home, because it’s on TV. We’re getting all kinds of messages from friends and family and members all over the country,” said Gaudet, who also hopes the Sahtu region can derive some optimism from a fun, positive event like this in an otherwise tough year.

Sahtu communities had their summer resupply season heavily disrupted when low water levels stopped barges arriving, while there are broader concerns around the region’s economic future and whether it’ll ever get an all-weather road connection to the rest of Canada.

“It’s been tough all over the North with everything that’s going on,” said Gaudet, who has joined other northern leaders to lobby federal ministers in Ottawa this week.

“The Sahtu has been going through quite a bit but we’re pushing hard, working with all the leaders here in Ottawa to make some sense out of it, and see how we can recover from all of this and be proactive about it.

“There’s lots of opportunities there, so we’ve just got to start working towards pursuing them.”