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Is Tim Hortons more than a coffee chain?

BY LÉO CHARBONNEAU | JAN 12 2009

A double-double at Timmies – nearly every Canadian would know you’re talking about a coffee at one of Canada’s ubiquitous Tim Hortons restaurants. Sociology professor Patricia Cormack of St. Francis Xavier University tapped into the zeitgeist with her article, “True Stories of Canada: Tim Hortons and the Branding of National Identity,” published in the November 2008 issue of the British journal Cultural Sociology.

In the article, Dr. Cormack argues that Tim Hortons has gone beyond a cultural icon to become a symbol of Canada and part of our “collective memory.”

An example of this was when Tim Horton’s became the exclusive distributor of the Royal Canadian Mint’s Remembrance Day quarter in 2004. The coffee chain also carefully cultivated a connection with Canada’s military, opening an outlet at the Canadian Forces base in Kandahar and running TV ads portraying family members sending coffee to the homesick troops.

To top it all off, like the cream in your double-double, Tim Hortons has associated itself with our national game through the sponsorship of the Timbits children’s hockey program.

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