Canada’s anti-tariff billboards in the U.S. go viral but is anyone swayed? [Video]

An unusual billboard caught Tom Smith’s eye earlier this week as he was heading to work at Emory University in Atlanta.

Paid for by the Canadian government, the billboard told Americans in big bold letters that “tariffs are a tax on your grocery bill.”

“I thought it was pretty novel,” said Smith, an economics professor. “I’m literally teaching this in my class that tariffs are a tax, that tariffs will raise prices domestically.”

Asked if he thought the message was effective, Smith said that’s up in the air.

“I don’t know if it will change people’s minds,” he said, referring to Americans who support U.S. President Trump’s tariffs on Canada and other countries. “There is a current of, let’s say, resistance to information that is quite pervasive.” 

But, he added, “if one of the incentives was to get people talking about tariffs, it certainly has achieved that goal.”