Your cities best or worst retro local commercials

[thurmas]

I will post here for Winnipeg as we have had some doozies over the years locally with Kern Hill, Perth's cleaners and Eaton Place:

Winnipeg - Kern-Hill Furniture Co-op commercial (1984)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFs03fGZXY4


Winnipeg - Perth's Cleaners commercial (1985)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LInkFsE6rrM

Winnipeg - Eaton Place commercial (1986)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ws-p7EHQ3Y

[Wigs]

thurmas, great thread!
Since Niagara never had a TV station we grew up on commercials from Toronto, Buffalo, and Hamilton. Buffalo ones in particular were gems.

this is a gem
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in the period of 1975-1985 when Buffalo was experiencing monthly layoff and plant closure announcements and had completely bottomed out to the rusted out forgotten industrial collapse city (that people still stereotype it as) they decided to come up with this PSA :D
There was absolutely nothing to be talkin' proud of in 1980:haha: unlike 2022 with the city and region growing again and Billions of development/redevelopment
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McKinley Mall, named after the President that was assassinated at the PanAm Expo of 1901 in Buffalo. sorry Prez, but we named a mediocre mall after ya!
This mall was still current (~3yrs old) at the time before the largest mall Walden Galleria opened up just a year later and ate everyone's retail dollar lunch in Western NY
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Albright Knox (now Albright Knox Gundlach art museum) is currently undergoing an almost $200M expansion, but in 1979 they were trying anything to get memberships including hiring Vincent Price
That's 'Yellow Christ' c. 1889 by Paul Gauguin in the background
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Was it even the 1980s without the MicroMachines spokesman?
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[ScreamingViking]

Can't forget this one out of Buffalo... Irv Weinstein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irv_Weinstein) was the Channel 7 anchorman, oft remembered for sharing news of multiple-alarm fires in the Queen City and its suburbs like Cheektowaga and Tonawanda. He seemed so serious in the 1970s and early '80s... and later self-deprecating about his image.

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[ScreamingViking]

I'm having a hard time remembering many Hamilton-based ones. Probably because most of our channels came from Toronto and Buffalo... and the local CHCH didn't have primo programming.

[Wigs]

Irv Weinstein was legendary. Irv was the most liked guy back when Buffalo was still a top 25-30 US media market. Despite seeming like a "hard news man" he apparently had quite the wild sense of humour.

"pistol packing punks on Porter Ave" or "Tonight there was another 5 alarm fire in the Fillmore District"

The late news opener graphics started with:
"It's Eleven O'Clock. Do you know where YOUR children are?"

[ScreamingViking]

For Toronto, there was the Cash Man:

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And this guy, who was always creepy because he didn't move his head when he talked, and I believe got accused of shady business practices (shocking, I know)

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And, noooooooobody in south central Ontario will forget Mel Lastman's son's spots for Bad Boy Furniture:

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[Wigs]

Can't forget this one out of Buffalo... Irv Weinstein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irv_Weinstein) was the Channel 7 anchorman, oft remembered for sharing news of multiple-alarm fires in the Queen City and its suburbs like Cheektowaga and Tonawanda. He seemed so serious in the 1970s and early '80s... and later self-deprecating about his image.


found an 80s clip with everything :haha:
The kids today might say "this is extra" even including Hamilton featured in the title opener! apparently Jim Carrey was extremely influenced from years of watching Channel 7 WKBW for his role in Bruce Almighty :D
I was just a wee lad but remember Buffalo seeming like this wild, dangerous, exciting place with fires and guns and drugs and blizzards. Now I just have to watch CH :frog:
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and who can forget Bad Boy furniture. everyone in southern Ontario probably saw those ads at one time.

[WhipperSnapper]

Cashman and Bad Boy are the ones I recall.

Something both different and sad
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[Denscity]

The cash man, now gold jewellery "oohh yaa" guy and Mel lastmans business still have ads on CP24 to this day.

[Architype]

CFMI 101 FM Vancouver 1985 TV commercial
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[ScreamingViking]

The cash man, now gold jewellery "oohh yaa" guy and Mel lastmans business still have ads on CP24 to this day.

About a dozen years ago I was at the ICU visiting room at McMaster University medical centre. The CashMan happened to be there too, I presume to see a loved one... several people gave him some love, and he acknowledged it.

Commercials DO work, I suppose. Nobody gave him any gold, but the recognition was instantaneous. :tup:

[Nashe]

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[niwell]

Can't forget this one out of Buffalo... Irv Weinstein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irv_Weinstein) was the Channel 7 anchorman, oft remembered for sharing news of multiple-alarm fires in the Queen City and its suburbs like Cheektowaga and Tonawanda. He seemed so serious in the 1970s and early '80s... and later self-deprecating about his image.




"Another fire tonight in North Tonawanda"

I was in Buffalo the other weekend with friends and joked about how Southern Ontarians know about Buffalo suburbs because of this reporting.

[SignalHillHiker]

Probably the most famous. The Village was the city’s second mall (always a distant second place to the Avalon Mall) so they advertised extensively.

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And a song dedicated to the Avalon Mall was huge here in its day:

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Then there was Captain Newfoundland. NTV was surreal. This sort of stuff played between shows when they couldn’t sell enough commercials lol

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[manny_santos]

The competition in London knows us, you should too!

[Wigs]

"Another fire tonight in North Tonawanda"

I was in Buffalo the other weekend with friends and joked about how Southern Ontarians know about Buffalo suburbs because of this reporting.

PM me about your trip. or shoot me an IG DM. I want to hear all about it.

[Wigs]

Captain Newfoundland, to keep NFLD pure and unmolested from the garbage ROCers! lol

That Village Mall one is bad by 1997 standards. Looks more like one made in late 80s.
and you know Avalon is the most popular mall if it had its own theme song that was popular haahah

As for Moncton, Nashe I always wanted to go to that waterpark. We had our last big family trip in '97 and went to magnetic hill and I was shouting in the minivan "but the waterpark is RIGHT there!" but was paid no heed and probably got slapped upside the head by my older brother.
In Charlottetown I actually had my folks drop me off at the amusement park while they toured Anne of Green Gables site. I was like "the story of Anne was forced upon us in elementary school and I've already seen the CBC series. enough of Anne"