“Let’s Be Blunt” named a finalist in PR Daily’s Nonprofit Communications Awards; winners to be revealed at The Yale Club in New York City on Sept. 30
WINNIPEG, MB – “Let’s Be Blunt,” a campaign created by UpHouse for UFCW Local 832 to bring attention to the safety issues facing cannabis retail workers in Manitoba, has been named a finalist in the Advocacy or Awareness Campaign category of PR Daily’s 2026 Nonprofit Communications Awards. Winners will be revealed at the Nonprofit Communications Awards Luncheon on September 30, 2026, at The Yale Club in New York City.
The recognition follows a national win for the campaign, which was named Best Provincial or National Campaign at the 2026 CALM Awards, presented by the Canadian Association of Labour Media.
PR Daily, published by Ragan Communications, is one of the most respected authorities in public relations and communications, reaching more than 600,000 communicators and marketers each month. Its Nonprofit Communications Awards recognize the campaigns and teams behind the year’s most effective mission-driven work, judged on strategy, creativity, and measurable results.
“This recognition reflects something we believe at our core: the most important stories are often the hardest to tell, and the right communications can move people to act. We’re proud of this work, and prouder still to share the honour with UFCW Local 832 and the workers whose experiences made it matter,” shared Kiirsten May, Co-founder, UpHouse.
“Let’s Be Blunt” set out to surface a problem that legalization left unaddressed. Unlike government-regulated industries such as liquor sales, cannabis retail launched without safety protocols to protect the people working the floor. Rooted in the lived experiences of workers who had been robbed, harassed, or worse, the campaign borrowed the visual language of the industry itself, spoofing cannabis product-label warnings under the message “Cannabis Workers Deserve Better,” and invited current and former workers to share how safe, or unsafe, they felt at work.
The results made the issue impossible to ignore. The campaign drove 3.33 million paid impressions and 879,000 video views, and earned 1.4 million additional impressions through news coverage picked up by CTV Morning Live, CTV News, and the Winnipeg Free Press. Nearly 100 workers shared their stories through the campaign survey, which revealed that just 8% of Manitoba cannabis workers feel safe at work all of the time. Those findings allowed UFCW Local 832 to bring a five-point list of requested actions to government, and conversations with provincial legislators about cannabis worker safety are ongoing.
“The workers we heard from had been robbed, harassed, or otherwise felt unsafe on the job, and they needed their voices to be heard. UFCW (Local 832) recognized the need to lead with their experience and address safety concerns in meaningful ways. Seeing that work recognized, and seeing it move real conversations with government, is everything we hoped for,” shared Brenlee Coates, VP Creative at UpHouse.
“Since our media push, there has been ongoing conversations with the provincial government and legislator about specific workers and experiences that we heard about through this campaign and the Union is committed to continuing to push for legislated improvements for workers in this sector,” said Crystal Klippenstein, Communications Coordinator, UFCW Local 832.
The finalist selection places “Let’s Be Blunt” among the year’s strongest mission-driven campaigns, chosen from a competitive international field spanning nearly 30 categories. It was recognized alongside campaigns from organizations like AARP, PBS, and Penn State. But its real measure of success has been on the ground: the campaign helped bring cannabis worker safety onto the agenda of Manitoba’s provincial government, where conversations about legislated protections are ongoing.
See our case study on the campaign here.
