If one believes the ad copy in turn-of-the-century publications, an epidemic of lethargy, weakness, and lack of masculine physical virtues afflicted North American men. Hapless readers were encouraged to try everything from embryonic versions of modern exercise programs to shocking their gonads with varying levels of electricity to restore their vigour. From his office at Yonge and Adelaide, Dr. McLaughlin offered Torontonians a chance to add courage to their tired blood and cure common......

This is Jörg Cieslok. He runs Titan Outdoor Canada. He is six and a half feet tall and has a thick German accent. He has a low opinion of "grassroots groups" like residents associations. He regularly calls up Rami to yell at him. He is more responsible for illegal billboards in Toronto than almost any other individual. He claims, under oath, to have lost $1 million due to sign bylaw enforcement. He threatened to......

After 90 years of serving customers in Toronto, the Dominion banner begins its vanishing act this week as owner Metro undertakes a year-long process of renaming the Ontario grocery stores acquired in its purchase of A&P Canada. Recent renovations at several stores around the city will culminate with the official launch of the Metro banner at the Bayview-Eglinton location on Thursday. Before the brand becomes as historic as the high-collared gentleman carving the roast, we......

Kudos to the designer of today's featured ad, which successfully imitates the look and feel of one of the most successful new magazine launches of the 1970s to promote a longtime Toronto wake-up call, CBC Radio's Metro Morning. Time Inc.'s attempt to package a personality-driven magazine with better research than existing scandal-focused publications resulted in People turning a profit within 18 months of its March 1974 debut. Managing editor Richard B. Stolley felt that......

zig Executive Creative Director Martin Beauvais, to The National Post about his company's totally repulsive bumvertising campaign for CFRB: "We didn’t pay [the homeless people] thousands or hundreds. We paid them the kind of money they would make on the street because it would have been wrong to do more than that. We paid them something decent." And: "I don’t think it’s exploitive at all because we’ve asked people if they wanted to do it......

If Baikal was "the Bobby Orr of the bruin hockey world," we hope that the bear's knees were sturdier than the hall-of-famer's. The results of two years of hockey drills for Baikal and nearly a dozen other bears were on display for Canadian audiences in the fall of 1970, when a Moscow Circus tour provided a slight thaw in Cold War relations. The tour got off to a rocky start in Montreal after two......

Good advertising is meant to stop you in your tracks, but a new ad campaign for local radio station CFRB might leave you frozen in disbelief. This month, CFRB contracted ad agency zig to create a witty series of guerilla-style street ads (read: illegal) meant to highlight polarizing issues of urban life. "Is advertising out of control?" reads a CFRB flyer wheatpasted on a Queen West utility pole. A sign asking "Should cyclists have......

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Advertisement for CBLT's first night on the air. The Toronto Star, September 8, 1952 Once upon a time, Toronto television viewers had to rely on transmissions from south of the border to watch regular programming. While there had been homegrown demonstrations of the technology at venues like the Canadian National Exhibition from......

With today marking the first day back to school for most students in the city, we take this opportunity to let parents know who runs the institutions that will mould your children into upstanding young citizens...or at least the people who ran the show in Leaside 50 years ago. Founded in 1920, the Leaside Board of Education operated out of Leaside High School by the time today's ad appeared. Besides the high school, the......

It may not have had the comedic potential of a banana phone, but imagine the looks bypassers may have given to anyone grooving down the street with a pop can nestled next to their ear...or not, given the number of novelty promotional portable radios produced during the pre-Walkman/iPod era. The manufacturer took no responsibility for anyone who mistook the radio for an actual can of locally brewed ginger ale and discovered the lovely fizz......

While BikeShare struggles to re-open its popular program, city hall may beat them to the punch. Yesterday, the Star discussed a new bike rental program modeled after those which are ''tried and proven around the world.'' Programs such as Paris's Velib and Barcelona's Bicing have been successful, and many other cities from Denver to D.C. are implementing similar ones. However, Toronto's concerns about its tourism industry may be the driving force behind the move. "There's......

While black background/brightly lettered signs on the city's roadsides aim to attract bargain hunters, the location and timing of a clearance sale announcement we discovered two nights ago may strike some as questionable—Wilson Avenue at Murray Road, directly south of the Sunrise Propane explosion site. Photo by Jamie Bradburn......

Though one tends to think of Roots as primarily a clothing retailer these days, it was a trendy shoe that launched the chain 35 years ago this month. After studying several retail business ideas, company founders Michael Budman and Don Green settled upon the growing craze in the early 1970s for the Earth Shoe, a Danish-designed piece of footwear whose heel was lower than its toe. After failing to secure the Canadian franchise for......

Optimism was in the air as the 1970 edition of the Canadian National Exhibition approached. The dawning of a new decade excited the fair's promoters and ad designers, encouraging both to add a modern touch to the Ex's 92nd edition. One of the most controversial exhibits was "Man and his Drugs" at the Queen Elizabeth Building. Described by programmers as "an honest, fearless portrayal of the effects of drugs on today's society," the maze-like......

So we're, uh, pretty sure that Bell's behind those mystery "er" ads after all. A poster at RedFlagDeals leaked some second-phase ads yesterday—including one for the Samsung Instinct that proclaims it an "apple eater"—which have since been confirmed by a few Torontoist readers as the real deal. The second phase is being revealed all around the city now (one revealed one is near where the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway meet; others are......

Cow herds and invalids were among the radio listeners that spent over 10,000 mornings waking up with Wally Crouter. His run as CFRB's morning man from 1946 to 1996 saw his comforting style stay afloat in the ratings against competitors like top 40 radio and shock jocks. Crouter felt that one of the keys to his long run was creating a comfort zone for listeners to ease themselves into the new day, without bringing......

The latest ubiquitous mystery ad is "er." Though it has various configurations—billboards, (illegal) signs, and subway station placards—it always takes the same rough form: two blue letters in the same typeface, and some lone blue shape on the edge of an otherwise white canvas. It's no Obay as far as provocativeness goes, but it's nonetheless drumming up more than its fair share of interest. So, who's behind it all? Our money's on Bell. The......

And Torontoist was there to make a video of it. Context after the jump.......

Even though back-to-school time is just around the corner and all the newbie university students will be dragging their apprehensive yet utterly relieved parents to IKEA for all their dorm room needs, it's not that group of unsuspecting hipsters who are being targeted by a brand-spanking-new ad campaign; it's their older, more-ready-to-settle-down counterparts, the yupster (think Smart car owner). Starting August 4, this fresh campaign (seemingly) targeting late twenty and early-thirty-somethings will air across......

While P. Jamieson tried to raise a ruckus with their dare to the dozen or so other dry goods retailers located in the vicinity of Queen and Yonge, two competitors would have the last laugh—T. Eaton and R. Simpson expanded rapidly after 1883, with the early versions of their landmark stores in place by the end of the 19th century. Source: The Globe, May 12, 1883......

Photographed by Nadia Halim in a women's washroom in the food court at York Lanes, on the York University campus. She writes "Seriously, there are some grave issues in our society surrounding death and dying, but this graffiti just made me giggle uncontrollably. It's that top sentence especially." Nadia titled the photo "Most Obviously Doomed Activist Cause Ever!" which we had a tough time disagreeing with, until we saw this.......

Believe it or not, there's a 10' x 20' Pattison ground sign behind there. Those trees' days are numbered. We don't know what the deal with the keyboard is. Photos taken on Lower Sherbourne, just north of The Esplanade, by Jonathan Goldsbie.......

Not so many of those bright red packs would be seen at an Argonauts game nowadays due to legislation, unless one pokes out of a fan's pocket. The 1969 edition of the Boatmen (10 wins, 4 losses) finished in second place in the East, a game behind the Ottawa Rough Riders. Four players were named to the CFL's all-star team: running back Dave Raimey, offensive guard Charlie Bray, defensive end Ed Harrington, and defensive......

Users of modern web browsers are getting used to not having to type in an entire URL to get to the page they want—most new browsers fill in the shorthand, so you can type in "Torontoist," for example, and don't have to worry about the .com suffix. Unless you're on Rogers, that is. Beginning yesterday (for us), Rogers users started getting a browser hijack for any failed DNS requests, which are usually due to......

If Reba McEntire and Tony Bennett come to Toronto to play, why shouldn't tourists follow suit? Two decades ago, Metro Toronto urged tourists to "discover the feeling" while sampling its neighbourhoods and attractions. The focus of the late 1980s television spot that we've dug up today is the multitude of leisure activities the city offers. Viewers in markets like Cleveland and Detroit were enticed to check out ballet, fishing, gondola rides, horse racing, boutique......

Art buyers can basically be divided into two categories: those who appreciate the thought and craftsmanship that go into the works and those who need something to offset their living room couch. While Toronto's rich art scene caters to both groups, sometimes all the offset-the-couch buyer wants is a simple decorative painting that won't empty their bank account. For them, as well as connoisseurs of the tacky, there is the starving artist sale option.......

On Monday’s edition of Stars & Dogs, BNN personality Kim Parlee wondered if TD Canada Trust’s use of attractive and muscular models armed only with water guns, green briefs, and temporary tattoos of the bank’s logo, was too risqué for the Canadian institution. (Blogs show a mix of support and jeers for the marketing tactic.) It’s an interesting question: where should a company with a market cap of over $51 billion draw the line......

Rami Tabello of IllegalSigns.ca has teamed up with the New York–based Anti-Advertising Agency to create IllegalBillboards.org. According to Tabello's announcement, "the idea is to set up a blank web site, which can now be used by New York-based activists to keep track of research into illegal billboards and scrutiny of Department of Buildings enforcement." Tabello has already started taking a look at illegal ads in New York City over the past few weeks.......

Indoor gardens. A climate-controlled shopping experience to deal with harsh winters and humid summers. The most stores under one roof in Canada. Plenty of directions for those using their vehicles or public transit. All of these drawing cards were used when Sherway Gardens opened in 1971. On the drawing board since the early 1960s, construction of Sherway Gardens was delayed for eight years due to legal challenges from merchants in the nearby communities along......

Near Bloor and Church—actually the Yellow Pages getting cute while begging us to stop using that crazy Google thing. Photo by Patrick Metzger.......