vintageads | Entries tagged with canada

Sunday! Sunday! SUNDAY!

LOL I have no idea if these events are as popular as they once were, but the Calgary International Speedway is long gone. Once on the edge of town, it's now pretty much where the landfill and sanitary ponds are :-D

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calzephyr

A cheery number for Pied Pickle Deli and Restaurant. The historic building/stairs the dancers are performing on is historic city hall in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It's one of the few sandstone buildings left and actually recently underwent a four year renovation to restore the sandstone exterior. As far as I can tell, the restaurant(s) closed down around 2006--the last mention I can find is a job ad from that year.

As far as local commercials go, this one has some budget for the locations, music and actors :-)

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Now boringly known as the CTV Sci-Fi Channel, Space was (is?) a Canadian sci-fiction channel which first began airing in the 1990s. This low-key ad tells a surprising little story. The actress is Gillian Dobb, who 80s TV fans may remember from Magnum PI.

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A charming story and fond memory for many Canadians, "Albert" is the short story of a boy who doesn't let being picked being last for hockey stop him from doing great things down the road with the support of his older brother and Canadian Tire, of course!

A more contemporary Canadian Tire ad called The Outsider echoes "Albert" although I wonder how many people see the connection.

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TBT! Today I remember the silly car commercials of City Ford starring a caricature of Edmonton's Ukrainian population, Nicky Fordinski.

The ads usually paired Nicky with spokeswoman Shannon where they pitched great deals and ended with a corny joke, sometimes about Nicky's wife Nellie.

In actuality Nicky was Raymond Johnston who passed away in 2019. I used to think the commercials were funny as a kid; nowadays they're a little cringey. But the character was popular enough to last years and years!

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Growing up in Edmonton, my little child brain was easily tricked by these low-budget commercials for Wild Rapids, a now defunct waterslide park in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. Located halfway between Edmonton and Calgary, Wild Rapids was hugely popular. It opened in 1982 and closed in 2016. According to Wikipedia it was one of five waterslide parks at the time.

I never got to ride the rapids despite it's proximity to home. Probably like most things, it was more work for my parents than it appeared.

Some vintage ads survive!

CW: This ad has a cringey Japanese stereotype as it advertises the Hari Kari slide:

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This ad has a cringey use of rap:

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This ad has a cringey use of vocal effects :-D

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calzephyr

Every now and then I love me a good, local commercial. The production values may have been budget-friendly or featured a local celebrity, or, as in the case of Bonzai Waterslides, a moment in time!

Bonzai Waterslides is a defunct waterslide park once operated in South Calgary, Alberta, Canada. A rather geographically plucky venture for a winter city, the ad below promised fun and good times!

Today the location at Heritage and Macleod Trail is a weedy lot.

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Laura Secord is a noted Canadian confectioner and the company behind these tasty puddings with a very memorable jingle. It used to come in a metal can before it came in a plastic cup.

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I can't tell if it was marketed in the US under the Jell-O named brand or not after finding the commercial below. I haven't seen it on the shelf for years, so I assume it's no longer made. The only one I can find are Hunt's Snack Packs and they seem super cheap :S

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TBH, beer commercials were a huge part of my childhood because they were everywhere!

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These 1990s ads are one of many featuring a Canadian in the US who doesn't forget his roots.

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In case you're not familiar, this is a classic hockey fight move at the end.

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Canadians often define themselves by what they're not, which is why the joke here works so well if you're Canadian :-D

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Over on LJ, I posted a bunch of Canadian beer commercials because the theme was beer. Naturally Canada has a lot of beers :-)

Molson Canadian had a lot of memorable TV ads in the 90s when there was a huge swell of Canadian patriotism. They tapped into that vibe. Upon rewatching these ads for the first time in a long time, I can't help but notice that they don't capture Canada's multiculturalism very well, but young white dudes are the target audience for sure.

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And of course...

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This oddly slow paced beer commercial has some interesting trivia if you click through to the comments. The man in the white trunks is Terry David Mulligan, legendary Canadian DJ and host of Much West.

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This ad has a lot of charm. The waiter is known to many as the voice of Yukon Cornelius--Larry Mann!

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calzephyr77.livejournal.com

How do you unite a country spread out from coast to coast? Public broadcasting and hockey! The CBC is Canada's national public radio and TV broadcaster and this 1999 ad is a painful reminder of how new the Internet was back then! RealPlayer, amirite?