Misspelled ads somehow made it onto Toronto’s most prominent billboards

Billboards towering over Toronto’s busy Sankofa Square (formerly Yonge-Dundas Square) have some passersby pausing for a double take this week thanks to a glaringly obvious typo that made it past many sets of eyes before somehow managing to end up on the prized ad space overlooking the square.

A keen observer shared images of the misspelled advertisement for Coors Light beer occupying prime billboard space above the busy intersection — and it’s wild that nobody else caught it sooner.

Ads boasting of “Mountain Cold Refershment,” botching the spelling of the word “refreshment,” have been running on the digital billboard above 302 Yonge Street on the northwest corner of Yonge and Dundas, along with the similarly-sized digital ad space above 53 Dundas Street East. 

blogTO reader Kathleen Bennett spotted the glaring error on Monday morning, sharing photos of the typo appearing on multiple billboards overlooking the bustling public square.

The reader explains, “just was on my way to work and noticed a billboard in Yonge and Dundas for Coors Light that had a major spelling error.” 

While typos are an unfortunate reality, it’s a bit harder to mess up a minimalist three-word slogan with no surrounding text, and then have it somehow clear multiple editors and make it onto the most sought-after ad space in the city to represent a global beverage brand.

A Molson-Coors representative told blogTO on Monday morning that they are “aware of the misspelling in the billboard and are currently looking into the mistake.”

On Monday afternoon, the Molson-Coors team provided an update, explaining that “This morning, we released a series of ads leading up to the Big Game intended to make Coors Light look even colder, and we’re aware they included a bit of a blunder.”

“In the ads released across Canada and the U.S., there was an unfortunate misspelling of ‘Mountain Cold Refreshment’ as ‘Mountain Cold Refershment.'” 

A company rep told blogTO, “Coors Light wants to thank everyone for letting us know about the errors,” adding, “Mondays, am I right?”

Hopefully, the marketing team behind this hilariously botched ad can take the mistake in fun, which would be — in their own words — a “refershing” way to handle an embarrassing situation.

The misspelled Coors Light ad joins other hilarious errors in Toronto billboard history, like a poorly-worded advertisement for a local chicken restaurant that made waves in 2022.