Impossible to Ignore: Cossette Vancouver Reframes What Strength and Passion Look Like on the Ice

For decades, curling has carried an image of polite precision. It’s a sport often defined by its quiet focus, restraint, and tradition. But as women’s sport steps into a new era of visibility, that stereotype no longer fits. Enter Cossette Vancouver’s latest campaign for Curling Canada, ‘We’ve Never Been Quiet’, a bold, culturally charged call to rethink what strength and passion look like on the ice.

Rooted in the real experiences of female curlers, the campaign doesn’t shy away from confronting the sexism that has long shadowed women’s sport. Instead, it reclaims the idea of volume, transforming what was once considered a distraction into a rallying cry for power, confidence, and pride.

Built from a sharply defined strategy and meticulous craft, the work pairs period-perfect sound design from Vapor Music with archival etiquette tropes from the 1950s and ‘60s, highlighting the unfiltered emotion of the modern game. This arresting creative contrast results in a campaign that both honours the sport’s heritage and challenges the outdated expectations that no longer serve it.

Here, LBB’s April Summers talks to Michael Pal, associate creative director and copywriter at Cossette Vancouver, about how a simple but provocative idea became the foundation for a campaign that’s impossible to ignore.

LBB> The core message of ‘We’ve Never Been Quiet’ challenges deep-rooted stereotypes. What inspired the campaign’s bold, declarative tone? And how did you arrive at the creative idea of reclaiming volume?

Michael> The creative execution was born from a sharply focused strategy: volume isn’t a distraction in women’s curling, it’s a strength. It shouldn’t be something athletes have to tone down to appease critics or misogynists.

The original brief was to sell tickets to major women’s events happening in 2026. During strategy development, we identified a powerful tension: the players’ natural intensity – their volume – was being unfairly criticised. That insight gave us a clear creative opportunity. How could we lean into that tension to both sell tickets and champion the women’s game in a fresh, unexpected way? The answer: show that the sexist expectations of the past have no place in the sport today.

LBB> You mentioned tapping into real experiences and research. How did that influence the direction of the campaign? And how important was it for the work to be grounded in truth rather than just rhetoric?

Michael> Authenticity was key. The campaign is built on the stories of real players' experiences, everything from sexist comments about how athletes look or sound to how they carry themselves on the ice. We weren’t interested in performative messaging. We wanted to reflect what’s actually happening in the sport and then amplify it in a way that’s impossible to ignore.

LBB> How did the team at Cossette strike a balance between being provocative enough to spark conversation, while still staying true to the sport and the athletes’ experiences?

Michael> We were intentional about honouring the sport’s heritage while challenging narratives that no longer serve it. Curling is emotional. It’s intense. And it’s time that reality was reflected in how we talk about the women’s game. The campaign respects the athletes’ grit and precision while deliberately using irony and contrast to confront outdated expectations.

LBB> Can you walk us through the visual and tonal choices in the campaign, from the contrast of past and present to the different uses of sound as a storytelling device?

Michael> The cultural tension in the brief was undeniable and compelling, but it was essential that we approach it in a way that felt both unexpected and deeply relevant to the curling community.

That led us down a rabbit hole of old etiquette tapes, records, and instructional videos from the '50s and '60s, which we completely flipped on their head. From there, it became a process of meticulous craft. With our partners at Vapor Music, we found the right talent and layered in period-authentic sound design, creating a voiceover that feels ironically dated but sharply relevant.

The end result is a campaign that doesn’t just challenge outdated perceptions, it reframes them, highlighting just how far the sport, and the conversation, have evolved.

LBB> What were some of the biggest challenges - creatively or strategically - in bringing this campaign to life, especially when addressing issues like misogyny and representation?

Michael> Ensuring authenticity and representation throughout the process was key. Curling Canada played a huge role in this, bringing stakeholders along that journey and ensuring our message genuinely resonated with and had input from representatives of the sport during the process. Without that, the campaign could have easily felt hollow or unaligned to the real feelings and experiences of the athletes and the sport as a whole.

LBB> Why does now feel like the right time for a campaign like this to be released?

Michael> The world is finally watching women’s sports differently. We’re seeing record-breaking attendance and engagement across leagues like the PWHL and WNBA. Curling Canada has been championing gender equity for years, from pay parity to equal coverage, and this campaign builds on that legacy. Now is the time to step up and claim the volume women in curling have always deserved.

LBB> Beyond curling, what do you hope this campaign signals to the wider sports and advertising industries about how we portray and platform women in traditionally male-dominated spaces?

Michael> This campaign is a call to reimagine how we frame women’s athleticism. Not as a softer or secondary version of the game, but as something equally powerful and worthy of attention. For the industry, it’s a reminder that the most resonant work comes from real stories and real people. Representation doesn’t mean reducing women to symbols, it means portraying them as they are: skilled, driven, and yes, loud.