page_title: Tim Hortons
section_title: Marketing
hierarchical_section_title: Tim Hortons / Marketing
caption_attribution_description: We had our sights on the Ontario Northland Railway's Northlander and Polar Bear Express trains, but spent more time in line at Tim Hortons than we could have imagined. This is in Cochrane, Ont. boyhood home of Tim Horton.
context_page_description: Tim Hortons Inc. is a Canadian multinational fast food restaurant chain. Based in Toronto, Tim Hortons serves coffee, doughnuts and other fast food items. It is Canada's largest quick service restaurant chain, with 4,846 restaurants in 14 countries, by December 31, 2018.
  The company was founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario, by Canadian hockey player Tim Horton and Jim Charade, after an initial venture in hamburger restaurants. In 1967, Horton partnered with investor Ron Joyce, who assumed control over operations after Horton died in 1974. Joyce expanded the chain into a multi-billion dollar franchise. Charade left the organization in 1966 and briefly returned in 1970 and 1993 through 1996.
  On August 26, 2014, Burger King agreed to purchase Tim Hortons for US$11.4 billion; the chain became a subsidiary of the Canadian holding company Restaurant Brands International, which is majority-owned by Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, on December 15, 2014.
context_section_description: Tim Hortons' advertising slogans have included "You've Always Got Time for Tim Hortons" and starting in the mid-2000s, "Always Fresh. Always Tim Hortons." While both of these slogans are still used, Tim Hortons began using an alternative slogan, "It's Time for Tims" in November 2011.
  Canadian Business magazine named Tim Hortons as the best-managed brand in Canada in 2004 and 2005.
  Since 2005, Tim Hortons has been the title sponsor of the Brier, the annual Canadian men's curling championships, along with the Canadian Ringette Championships. Resultant sponsored events include the Tim Hortons Brier Shot of the Week Award, 2013 Tim Hortons Brier, 2016 Tim Hortons Brier, and the 2014 Tim Hortons Brier among other years.
  Shortly before December 2007, they discontinued their gift certificates and replaced them with the Quickpay Tim Card, with the Christmas slogan "Because it's hard to wrap a double-double" (coffee with two sugars and two creams). Many locations still accept gift certificates, however.
  In September 2006, Tim Hortons courted controversy by mandating that employees were not to wear red as part of the Red Fridays campaign by families of the military to show support for Canadian troops. Within a few hours, Tim Hortons partially reversed its position and has allowed staff in Ontario stores to wear red ribbons or pins to show support for the wear red on Fridays campaign.
  In June 2009, Tim Hortons USA created Twitter and Facebook pages to drive online traffic. After Tim Hortons had agreed to provide 250 cups of free coffee in 2009 for a "Marriage and Family Day" hosted by the National Organization for Marriage, the company removed its sponsorship after it was revealed that the NOM was an organization that campaigns against gay marriage. The company stated the sponsorship was a violation of the company's policy not to sponsor events "representing religious groups, political affiliates or lobby groups."
  On July 12, 2013, it was announced that Tim Hortons had acquired the naming rights to the new stadium being built in Hamilton, Ontario. The new stadium took on the name of Tim Hortons Field. It became the home stadium of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2014. The corporate-sponsored stadium name was not used during the 2015 Pan American Games, when the stadium hosted soccer matches.
  In June 2015, Tim Hortons pulled a four-week advertising campaign by energy company Enbridge from its in-store "Tims TV" service after three weeks following a petition by the advocacy group, SumOfUs. Even though the ads were part of a general "Life Takes Energy" campaign introduced by Enbridge the previous year, the group argued that Tim Hortons' airing of the ads implied an endorsement of controversial projects under development by Enbridge, such as the Northern Gateway pipeline, going on to say that "Enbridge's ad campaign uses attractive actors, cute kids and high production values to hide the real truth—its tar sands project will put ecosystems, salmon and wildlife in danger, create virtually no local jobs, and accelerate climate change." The decision to pull the ads, however, resulted in a boycott of Tim Hortons led by Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean, who felt that the decision was an attack on Alberta's oil industry, as Enbridge is one of the province's top-employing companies.
caption: A Tim Hortons sign outside a store, with the words Always Fresh written on it. Always Fresh is a slogan used by the company.
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