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Vintage Toronto Ads: Brainy Birds for a Child You Love

By Jamie Bradburn

20090519owl.jpg
Source: Toronto Life, March 1984.

Hands up—how many of you read Chickadee or Owl during your childhood or purchased it for kids you knew? With features like the cartoon adventures of the Mighty Mites and the experiments of Dr. Zed (aka York Region science teacher Gordon Penrose), these magazines aimed to introduce scientific and environmental concepts to young readers.
Owl began publishing in 1976, with early subscription ads featuring praise from the likes of Pierre Berton, even if the language used may not have been deemed appropriate for innocent ears (“It’s a damn good magazine!”). Both magazines faced financial difficulties due to publisher Young Naturalist Foundation’s anti-advertising stance, but a fundraising campaign in 1980 kept the publications afloat.
Just over a year after today’s ad, Owl entered the TV biz…

Additional material from the April 16, 1977 edition of the Globe and Mail.

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Comments

  • http://undefined bigdaddyhame

    I enjoyed Ranger Rick as a child… My own kids now read Chirp and Chickadee.

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    i read Chickadee and then Owl for the whole splendid length and breadth of my childhood. Great stuff, so far as I recall.

  • http://undefined Gloria

    Oh jeez, great memories. I used to read OWL; I entered their summer photo contest and ended up winning a spot. It was pretty much the best moment of my life up to that point (and some time after).

  • http://www.bitpicture.com Marc Lostracco

    The first place I used to turn when I received my OWL issue was the Mighty Mites comic. What’s scary is that I remember that actual issue pictured with the Science Centre hair. [*adjusts walker*]
    Now, my son looooves when he gets Chirp in the mail, and it’s the kinda little magazine that I don’t go crazy having to read a zillion times before his bedtimes.

  • http://undefined Amanda Factor

    I forgot how amazing the Owl TV theme song was.

  • Pan Von Sol

    Oh wow, that video brought back some memories I thought were gone for ever. That song will be in my head all night now, thanks.

  • http://undefined rek

    Ranger Rick! My sister got Chickadee.