MapQuest doubles down on Lake Ontario, posts giant old-school printed directions to the lake in Toronto, U.S. cities - Toronto Star

The U.S.-based map company is pushing a new advertising campaign over ongoing 'Lake America' naming dispute. 

The Toronto board is located at 43 Lower Jarvis Street and features the inevitable blank page MapQuest was known for when users printed directions in the late 2000s.

MapQuest appears to be doubling down on its stance in the Lake Ontario naming row — and is taking it from the screen to the streets. 

The California-based map company installed six-foot tall billboards in Toronto and five U.S. cities this week featuring old-school printed MapQuest turn-by-turn driving directions from each location to Lake Ontario. 

The billboards, which went up in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington D.C., feature the campaign line: “It’s still Lake Ontario. And we’re still here.” 

Toronto’s billboard is located at 43 Lower Jarvis Street, near Lake Shore Boulevard East, and fittingly only needs just one page of directions to reach Lake Ontario. The U.S. versions stretch across two or three pages, reflecting the considerably longer drive to the lakes from cities south of the border.

The advertising campaign comes weeks after MapQuest made headlines when it said it won’t change the name of Lake Ontario after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 27 to rename the large body of water to “Lake America” amid ongoing trade tensions.

“We’re not changing it,” Mapquest said in a social media post, displaying a map of the lake. 

In a followup post, MapQuest joked that anyone determined to give the lake a new name could use an online generator, offering “Lake Are We Doing This Again?” as one possibility.

Chicago is one of five U.S. cities MapQuest to chose to display its billboard campaign in. This board is located at State Street and Hubbard Street in the River North neighbourhood.

MapQuest reached No. 1 in navigation apps and overall apps in the U.S. App Store, surpassing two million downloads as usage rose to roughly 50 times its usual level.

Google and Apple have both changed the lake’s name to “Lake America” on their map apps in the United States, while the name remains unchanged outside the country. 

MapQuest is now leaning even harder into nostalgia after developing a new campaign with independent creative agency Quality Meats “to remind people that the MapQuest you remember is still, in fact, the most trusted provider of navigation.”

The billboards include exit numbers, highway sign icons, a banner ad for discount printer cartridges a long URL running across the bottom of each page and in some cases, a random blank page at the end, recreating the look of a classic printed MapQuest route. 

The Chicago board is in River North neighbourhood near State Street and Hubbard Street, Los Angeles’s is near MapQuest’s headquarters on Main Street in Santa Monica and New York’s board is down the street from Grand Central Station and the Canadian consulate on East 38th Street. All three went up Wednesday, a Quality Meats  spokesperson told the Star on Thursday night.

Washington D.C.‘s board is in the heart of the northwest quadrant of the District at Dupont Circle, San Francisco’s board is a few blocks from other tech hubs at 490 Brannan Street and Toronto’s board is only a few hundred metres away from Lake Ontario. Those three boards went on display Thursday. 

“While keeping the names that people know and trust, this campaign brings our commitment to life while tapping into 30 years of nostalgia, and puts it all right back on the map,” said Doug Berger, MapQuest’s general manager. 

Gordy Sang, co-founder and co-chief creative officer of Quality Meats said the company likes it “when challenger brands actually take on that bold challenger stance.”

MapQuest launched a “We’re Not Changing Collection” that includes t-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags referring to the company’s refusal to rename Lake Ontario.

MapQuest has also launched Lake Ontario merch, including T-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bag. One design includes the words “We’re not changing it” and an outline of Lake Ontario and another says “It’s Lake Ontario on MapQuest.”

Adshayah Sathiaseelan is a staff reporter with the Toronto Star. She can be reached at asathiaseelan@thestar.ca.