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Toronto Raptors star Scottie Barnes has teamed up with Scotties Facial Tissues for its 'Get the Name Right' campaign.
Published Dec 01, 2025 • 4 minute read
Barnes Scotties
Toronto Raptors star Scottie Barnes has teamed up with Scotties Facial Tissues for its 'Get the Name Right' campaign. Photo by Handout /Kruger Products Canada
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First, to clear up any confusion, Toronto Raptors star Scottie Barnes is not changing his name. A TSN Raptors broadcast last week featured a segment where Barnes “announced” at a mock media availability that he was changing his social media (Instagram and TikTok) name to Scotties Barnes. Raptors broadcasters Jack Armstrong, Matt Devlin and Kayla Grey played along, but to nobody’s surprise, the segment was part of a branding tie-in between Barnes and Scotties Facial Tissues, which has been made in Canada since 1956 and is the top facial tissue brand in the country.
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Barnes and his team get pitched on products to endorse all the time, but he said the “Get the Name Right” campaign by Scotties was a “no-brainer” based on the tie-in to his name and the creativity involved.
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“This one appealed to me, it was really intriguing,” Barnes, looking fresh despite coming off back-to-back road losses the previous two days, told Postmedia in a 1-on-1 video interview Monday.
“I heard the idea and it was just great. It was like ‘OK, let’s do this,’ when I heard the idea. It was kind of just the mystery in it. I think it got people thinking, like, ‘Is this real? Scotties with the ‘s’ at the end of it, just kind of had people confused. And then just giving them awareness of Scotties the brand,” he said.
Barnes said he enjoyed the reaction to the clip. “I got a lot of feedback that it was just, hilarious. People actually thinking that I changed my name, but, at the end of it, my name is still Scottie Barnes, not Scotties, but it was funny and it got a reaction we wanted from people,” he said.
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Plenty of opportunities
The former all-star and NBA rookie of the year has quickly learned there are plenty of marketing opportunities that come with playing for Canada’s only NBA team.
“I didn’t really know that much about Canada coming in, so I didn’t know about the market, how it was at all,” Barnes told Postmedia.
“But it’s actually like a whole different market, and it’s one of the best markets in the NBA. There’s so much that you can do. It’s just amazing. It’s different, for sure, than any other NBA city you got the whole country, there’s different brands, but they turn into (Canadian) brands,” he said. “So the market is huge, and there’s so much for us as players that we can explore and just be creative with.”
Barnes likes to try to have fun with his off-court endorsements and thinks it helps fans get a better sense of his personality they can’t just by watching him play basketball.
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“Every time I go into things like this I always try to test myself on how funny, how goofy I can be. I just try to be creative, whatever the scoop is, just try to test my stuff out in that area, where I’m able to show a different side of me that you don’t really get to see all the time,” Barnes said.
The real Barnes is back
Speaking of which, Raptors fans didn’t often get to see the happy, go-lucky Barnes the last couple of seasons. That Barnes had played with an infectious joy early in his NBA career when the team was still competitive, but two rough seasons had him often frustrated whether by injuries or losses.
The old Barnes has been back this year, with the Raptors playing well, getting off to one of the best starts in the NBA. He says it’s no coincidence.
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“It was pretty frustrating. It tests you, your character on what are you gonna do when wake up next morning? How are you gonna act? You gotta just keep testing yourself and booting yourself up knowing there’s gonna be better days,” Barnes said of the previous two seasons.
But success is bringing more awareness, whether it’s marketing tie-ins, or the exposure the NBA Cup will bring to Barnes and the Raptors. Team success also leads to more recognition in terms of all-star and all-defensive recognition for Barnes.
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Winning is everything
“Winning is everything … Once you start winning, it puts you into different conversations,” Barnes said.
“Even if I was doing the same thing any other year (as he is this year when he’s been one of the NBA’s best players) we (weren’t) winning, so I wasn’t in those same conversations that I was supposed to be in,” he said. “So winning is bringing a lot of recognition to this team on what we can do. People are seeing that we got a lot of talent here. Everything else is just gonna come … everything else is just gonna fall right into place.”
But his name is staying the same.
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