Canadian Tire has long stated its belief in the power of play, and this year’s “We All Play For Canada” Olympic campaign does that both through the eyes of kids themselves and athletes that have made it to the Olympic stage. The campaign aims to show Canadians of the importance play has in developing values from the playground to the podium, by showing that play can strengthen communities by instilling good sportsmanship in children. “As a long-standing partner of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Teams, we’re excited to see our We All Play for campaign come to life in an even more interactive and engaging way than ever before. Our hope with this campaign is that our athletes feel connected to home while competing in Tokyo.” – Eva Salem, vice-president, brand and digital marketing, Canadian Tire

UK born director James Lees spent much of his childhood involved in theatre, and ultimately transferred his skills to film. His first ever short film ‘The Apology Line’ was met with much acclaim and won numerous best film awards following its release. He followed up his success with two more award winning short films, including ‘Pockets’ which screened at SXSW in 2009. Since then, James has gone on to direct commercials for highly respected brands such as Beats by Dre, Bacardi, and Converse. His Beats ‘Dedicated: #AboveTheNoise’ campaign featuring Conor McGregor won Best Branded Long Form Content at the 2017 Ciclope Awards, and received an honorable mention at this year’s Art of Creativity Awards. In addition to commercial directing, James has directed music videos for some of the world's biggest and most respected artists including OneRepublic and Justin Bieber. His video for OneRepublic's 'Counting Stars' is one of the most viewed YouTube videos of all time, being only the 11th video to ever break the 1 Billion mark. He is currently developing his debut feature and expanding 'The Apology Line' project to other territories around the world.