It looks like some ad pillars went on a diet this weekend. Last week, we pointed out that this advertisement had a rather embarrassing misspelling in gazillion-point type. Someone must be reading Torontoist, because the superfluously-vowelled poster was replaced by an error-free version over the weekend, just a couple of days after we shone our searchlight of publicity on it. Even The Fixer would have been hard-pressed to match our rapid turnaround. One commenter......

Is anyone else sick of those borderline-offensive Canadian Club ads they've been running in NOW lately? Based on the strange notion that thinking about your parents having sex will make you want to buy things, the whiskey's "Damn Right" campaign tries to create nostalgia for the fatherly masculinity of yesteryear. They use "vintage" photos and the grammatically invincible tagline "DAMN RIGHT YOUR DAD DRANK IT" as a rallying cry for some kind of boozy......

We're happy to report that the looser who sat behind you in Grade 12 English class just got a job as a copy writer. You always knew that he'd make his mark on the world in some way, didn't you? How exactly does such a glaring mistake make it through all of the design and approval stages that must be required before an ad like this is even printed? Interestingly, they managed to spell......

"Next stop, Quarter Pounder" is something you could be hearing on the subway in the future, as City Council agrees to look at selling station naming rights to corporations. However, TTC vice-chair Joe Mihevc calls the study a "waste of time" and says the idea should be rejected, presumably because he's polled all 1.5 million riders and knows that they'd rather pay higher fares than suffer the indignity of a subway stop named after......

Not content to let America have all the schadenfreude fun, Ashley Madison—Toronto-based online dating company intended for people looking to cheat on their spouses, whose slogan is "when monogamy becomes monotony" and who is responsible for TV ads like these—took out a full-page ad in today's New York Post. Addressed to Eliot Spitzer, the now–former New York Governor who was caught hiring prostitutes, the open letter (at right) slicks a thick coat of sleaze onto......

Photo by Jonathan Goldsbie. According to a December 2004 article in the Globe, Mike Harris is (or at least was at the time) the chairman of video advertising company Onestop; he got on board "in return for an equity stake" in the business. Presuming that he still has that stake (and why wouldn't he? he may be evil, but he's not stupid), Harris became a richer man two weeks ago, when the Toronto Transit......

With Rogers' plan to move Citytv, OMNI Television, and the Fan 590 to the southeast corner of Dundas Square, those familiar with the current streetfront studios on Queen Street have wondered if the former Olympic Spirit building will be opened up in a similar way. Though merely an preliminary concept rendering, Rogers and Quadrangle Architects seem to have grand designs for the space, currently dubbed Rogers Television City, as evident in this image supplementing......

Last February, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released the NYC Condom, with packaging echoing the city's iconic subway signage and distributed for free by street teams in heavily-trafficked areas. In time for Valentine's Day this year, the rebranded LifeStyles condoms have been redesigned, accompanied by a multimedia campaign under the slogan "Get Some." But one of the campaign's new banner ads will look strangely familiar to Torontonians—it features a......

Photo by Lina Aristizabal. Yesterday, January 21, was the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion in the United States. Monday marks the 20th anniversary of Canada's Morgentaler decision, a similar judgment that found the Criminal Code's abortion provision to be in violation of womens' Charter rights. In the Morgentaler case, Justice Bertha Wilson wrote the following:The decision whether to terminate a pregnancy is essentially a......

The Globe and Illegal Signs report today that Titan Outdoor Canada Company has asked the courts to save its sixteen vinyl billboards from a City of Toronto removal order. Putting on its legal cap, Torontoist reviewed the notice of application [PDF]—the first step in the court process—filed by Titan in the Ontario Superior Court. The notice alleges that the City lacks the authority to regulate the distinction between different types of signs, is acting......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Getting furious at advertising may seem so early 2000's, but commercials this year have not only annoyed, but shown......

Reader Ted M. tipped us off this morning to the extremely unfortunate ad placement on the Star's online article about an eight-year-old girl who drowned after being trapped inside her mother's car when it slid into a river: a Flash ad for Expedia asking the reader, "Feeling trapped this winter?" Whoops. The ad server that served up the ad based (presumably) on only certain keywords in the article's content (just as it's decided that......

Apple advertises its 8 GB MP3 player––some device called the "I Pod Mini"––as having enough capacity for 2,000 songs. Rogers, on the other hand, is marketing its 8 GB Sony Ericsson W580i MP3-playing phone as having the capacity for 10,000 songs! 10,000! That's no problem if you like all your music under a minute and a half, in mono, and encoded at an AM radio–quality bitrate. Otherwise, you might be a little disappointed––you know, more......

When Austrian company Wiener Stadtwerke approached Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy about using the song "This Is The Dream of Win & Regine" in a commercial, Pallett declined (probably nicely). So, naturally, Wiener Stadtwerke used the song in a commercial in June of this year anyway––or, at least, the most similar re-recorded version of Final Fantasy's song possible, changing a few notes in the violin part, adding some guy awkwardly singing "can you feel it?" and crediting......

Photo by Marc Lostracco. Deliberately confusing customers is big business in Canada, and fudging advertised prices with hidden fees is a hallmark of this particular circle of hell. Consumers can activate their cable television within a day, but can't cancel it without paying for the following month. Freestanding "independent" ATMs that are actually owned by big banks charge you an extra $1.50 "convenience" charge on top of what you'd pay at their regular ATM.......

When we interviewed TTC Chair Adam Giambrone in August––at the height of anxiety over potential cuts to his system––he told us that the TTC has "an acceptable level of advertising. Could it be less? Absolutely. At this point any reduction would be a budget reduction, and I'll tell you I'm not really prepared to reduce the budget of the TTC to reduce the advertising. At the same time, I think we certainly have enough......

The arrival of Toronto Life in the mailbox each month is something to look forward to, except for one thing: the ridiculous payload of advertising that comes with it. Now, we understand that magazines generally lose money on subscriptions, and Toronto Life's $24 annual fee is worth every penny, but we think that Toronto Life is starting to look more like Toronto Life Square. Subscription card "blow-ins" and heavy-stock ad inserts are extremely unpopular......

Do either of these ads say "Toronto" to you? Captions: at left, "Do you think I need a breast reduction?", at right: "Tonight I'm not Susan. Call me Antoinette." They're the city's new "T.O. Live With Culture" ads. Made from leftover money from the Live With Culture budget, they are supposed to target American tourists: according to CTV, "the ads are destined for alternative weekly newspapers in eight U.S. border cities. Readers in Buffalo, Rochester,......