We all know him, we all hate him. He is... The Canadian Tire Guy.
He is played by Canadian actor Ted Simonett, but details, photos, and available videos of the old commercials are almost impossible to find on the whole internet.
I checked everywhere.
Basically this dude was the bane of my existence for the 8 YEARSthat he was the Canadian Tire spokesperson. It seems like all the money they saved on paying this terrible actor was spent to ensure that his commercials ran practically 24/7.
He is coined "the Ned Flanders" of commercials, always popping up at his neighbour's houses with the perfect tool for their really specific-tool-needing situation. He was ugly and chipper, two qualities I hate in an unattractive old man, but yet he continues popping up at his neighbours, and on our televisions incessantly.
I did a longer search than I usually would to try and track down even ONE of this endless list of crappy commercials, but I guess Canadian Tire was embarassed about them and pulled them all from the internet somehow. They finally figured out that no one wanted to see them.
Macleans posted a delightfully mean article about him, delightfully called "What a tool" back in 2005.
In case you're unsure about what I'm talking about (comeon... you're not), here's a clip of the neighbour we love to hate aka the Canadian Ned Flanders from the Rick Mercer Report.
So I totally (insert sports reference that amounts to failure here) with the Superbowl Ads, but I'm sure everyone has seen them and thinks they were really great or a giant waste of money. Like a bird in summertime, I was on the fence mostly. But moving on...
I've decided that my dream now is to be a copywriter for a company that makes booze. There are many reasons why I think this would be great, the first one being the high probability of free booze.
But coming in shortly after that, I think it would be really challenging to work against the constraints that the MLCC and the CRTC impose on alcohol ads. You basically can't say or do anything in a commercial that is like "Buy our product! You'll enjoy it!" so you've gotta be really creative and go around the bars that bar showing a bar.
Here's a great series of print ads I found from Australia for Carlton Mid. Enjoy.
So, last night I had a dream that my blog was a collection of advertisements that I either liked or disliked. Since this guy has been floundering around as of late, I've decided to do just that.
Thanks again, subconscious!
I really want to pursue a career in advertising, and so I figure that I can use my weekly (sometimes daily) posts as a source of inspiration, should I happen to attain such a job.
I saw this commercial on T.V. the other day, and it really caught my attention.
It's a bit of a stretch - the ad is for beer after all - but I felt that it went in a completely different direction than the generic cookie-cutter booze ads you see all the time. It's also interesting in the sense that restrictions for alcohol ads are so tight, most ad companies have to be really creative. You wouldn't know that this commercial is for alcohol at all until the very end.
The visuals are stunning, and the message is inspiring. It's almost like a short film.
