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A couple weeks back, Spacing Wire posted this brilliant old TTC ad that made us hungry for more forgotten gems of Toronto advertising. The video in question was uploaded by a user calling themselves WNED 17, and their entire archive is made up of similar videos. In fact, their profile page provides a mission statement: "Youtube user WNED17 is proud to present repeat portions of broadcast captured in the 1980s and early 1990s via Trillium Cable, located in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada." How cool is that? After the jump, please join Torontoist on a pleasant stroll down televisual memory lane, where we shall screen such masterpieces as a commercial for now-defunct Sam the Record Man, a Wintario lottery ad featuring a star of Canadian children's television and, as a special treat, the gorgeous Fritz Lang-esque (is that a stretch?) old introduction for CityTV's Great Movies.
To whet your appetite, let's ride to the centre of drama and delight with this charming ad for the Eaton's Centre from the 80s:
To start things off, take a look at this Honest Ed's commercial, featuring the man himself. Honest Ed's a silly goose; take a gander at his low prices!
Who could forget this adorable Bowlerama jingle? Everyone, that's who!
Where would early-90s elementary school birthday parties have been without the CN Tower's "Tour of the Universe"? (Seriously, it was awesome!)
The best part of this ad for Sam's is not the Record Man flashback (cool as his origin story is), but the examples of "great music" available at his store: Boston and Bruce Willis.
Maybe Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson's bomb gag would have gone over better in the simpler times of 1984, when nothing sold lottery tickets like explosions. Watch for a mid-commercial cameo by Jodi from Today's Special.
And finally, here's that cool animated opening to CityTV's Great Movies. Great Movies has had a bunch of different intros over the years, most of them beautiful. But there's something special about that shot of the CN Tower at the beginning of this one.
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How does one square this page's frequent maligning of billboard advertising in all its forms as blight and wholly without redeeming substance with its unabashed love for "old" advertising of the print and video variety?
Because you can choose to see it rather than have it shoved down your throat?
Mark Dailey sounds really...young...in that Bowlerama ad.
I think the CN Tower looks cool in that one spot because it's not properly 3D. I kinda miss some of that old 2D compositing... sometimes it had this majestic quality to it that "correct" 3D doesn't.
Also, the clip ends with the start of the old United Artists logo. That was always my favourite movie studio logo. Nothing ever made you feel like you were going to see something really special more than that. Combined with the classic City intro, the movie that followed could've been Jaws 3 and I would've been glued to the screen.
That was really cool. I also recognized the soothing sound of Mark Dailey's voice in that Bowlerama ad. High fives, erlogan.