VIDEO: Wally Award winner: TV commercial of the year

We got off to a really slow start this month, so have to kick it into overdrive [Wut dat? Ed.] to post something about the many things we have to take care of before the yearend. Today we present the coveted Wally Award for best TV commercial of the year. And the winner is... drum roll... "Dinner Party at Chuck's Roadhouse". Here `tis...

Credit where credit is due: Chuck's Roadhouse primarily works with Ajax Creative for their advertising, especially for major campaigns such as "Legend of Chuck" and their Super Bowl ads. They also collaborate with other production houses like Minifridge Media for specific video projects, such as their "Life's Open Roads" commercial series. Chuck's also has an in-house marketing team to take care of franchise support and local marketing initiatives.

VIDEO: What's wrong with the Sydney Sweeney ad?

Walt was not far enough away from civilization (?) to avoid the controversy over this ad for American Eagle jeans. "Some people" (you know who I mean) are criticizing the ad for being "provocative", "divisive" and even... wait for it... "racist"! Well, let's have a look.

 

I'd say 1000s of real women are running down to their local clothing emporium, even as we speak, to buy a pair or three. And hundreds of thousands of real men are buying a pair (or three) for their significant others. 

Why not? Well, the wokesters at The Body Optimist will tell you why this ad offends them, in an article headed: "It's even racist!": Sydney Sweeney criticized for an ad deemed provocative", by Léa Michel (note the pretentious spelling of the name) posted today. No need to follow the link. Walt is going to turn on the bullshit meter and analyze the whole steaming load. The woke BS is in pink and my comments are in brackets.  

Now American Eagle's latest campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney has set social media ablaze. With the slogan "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans," the brand aimed for "a stylish homage to denim classics." Except the message wasn't received the same way by everyone. Accused of reviving sexist stereotypes and even flirting with racist codes, the ad campaign has sparked a lively debate about the boundaries between marketing provocation, gendered representation, and latent cultural racism. [Who "sparked" the debate? I didn't hear anyone complaining.]

In the most talked-about clip of recent days, Sydney Sweeney, who rose to fame in the series "Euphoria" and "The White Lotus," repairs a vintage car—a Mustang GT350—wearing a fitted tank top and skinny jeans from the brand. [The video above is not the offending clip. This is the hot one!]  

The whole thing is a mix of modernized pin-up aesthetics and a tribute to the codes of male auto mechanics. [See, for the wokesters, nothing offensive is ever said directly. You have to know the "code" to get the sexist, racist, yada yada message.] She is then seen wiping her hands on her jeans before getting into the vehicle. The slogan, in turn, refers to the cut of the jeans and, according to the brand, the "confidence each person can have when wearing them." 

What could have been a slightly retro and sexy campaign quickly drew the ire of several internet users. Some people saw it as an "anti-woke" or even supremacist message. Others denounced the staging as reducing a woman to her appearance, in a pose that flirts with the most persistent clichés of 1990s marketing. [Some people saw it like that? Were they looking through pink- or mauve-coloured glasses?]

A gendered and racial reading of the message The phrase "superb jeans" has been accused of playing on a double meaning: jeans (pants) and genes (genetics). A potentially problematic pun, according to critics, who point out that in English, the pronunciation is identical (jeans / genes). 

[Wait. It gets worse.] On the X network (formerly Twitter), some voices saw in this choice an allusion to the supposed "purity" of the actress's origins - young, white, blonde, thin - often elevated to a Western aesthetic fantasy. [You bet! I've been trying for years to construct a real fantasy out of a fake reality.]

Criticism also focuses on the actress's posture, her sexualization, and the fact that the campaign once again exploits a hyper-standardized image of femininity: a slim body, a soft gaze, suggested but controlled sexuality, all in a setting that recalls the appropriation of a so-called masculine universe (mechanics) to divert it for aesthetic purposes. An approach deemed dated by some commentators, who denounce a vision still largely dominated by the male gaze. [That's a lot. Pass me the barf bag.]

Faced with the controversy, American Eagle quickly took to its Instagram account to speak out. Refusing to apologize [Good on `em!], the brand insists that the slogan refers only to jeans, the ones worn by the actress, and in no way to anything else. It writes: "The slogan 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans' is and always will be about jeans. Her jeans. Her story." 

She [sic] also says she wants to "continue to celebrate the way each person wears their AE jeans with confidence, in their own way," emphasizing a desire for inclusivity. [Oops, got some weasel words in there, at the last minute.] The brand therefore seems to be taking ownership of its approach, focusing on a visually strong editorial line, even if it means shaking things up. [Shaking what things up? Do they mean the woke narrative that anything that appeals to men and their "toxic masculinit" is baaddd?]

Notably, the White House itself intervened. Steven Cheung, the presidential communications director, posted a message on X declaring: "Cancel culture has no limits. Liberal ideology is twisted, stupid, and blocked, which is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024." [Right on, Steven!]

This unexpected support, in particularly virulent language, reinforced the idea that this campaign is now being co-opted in an ultra-polarized political climate, both in the United States and elsewhere. [Co-opted by whom? Steven Cheung is a Chinese-American. Is he working for the white supremacists? LOL]

The fact that American Eagle's stock jumped nearly 10% [Forget the jeans. Buy the stock.] after the campaign aired is no coincidence: commercial provocation still pays off, especially in a context of growing rejection of political correctness in certain circles. [Are you in the same circle as Walt?!]

[Last words to the woke.] Ultimately, this campaign highlights a growing tension in contemporary society: how can we speak to the greatest number of people, in an era saturated with images, without offending? Should we please or disturb in order to sell? And at what cost? 

The Sydney Sweeney case also illustrates the tension between female injunctions to emancipation and those that continue to sell a standardized, desirable, and performative femininity. By choosing a renowned pop icon with an image that was both glamorous and accessible, American Eagle knew it wasn't speaking into a vacuum. However, the reception shows how diverse, sometimes contradictory, and deeply politicized contemporary interpretations are. [Last word to Walt: If these ads are divisive, it's only because "certain people" want them to be so, as the culture wars continue.]

Innocent question about racism in TV commercials

The Niagara Parks Commission is an independent agency of the Ontario government which is responsible for Niagara Parks [duh. Ed.], the lovely stretch of parkland which runs for 35 miles from Fort Erie to Niagara-on-the-Lake, along the western side -- the pretty side -- of the Niagara River.

The main attraction for visitors is, of course, the famous falls, at the brink of which sits Niagara Parks' most-visited attraction, Table Rock Centre -- a comples which houses restaurants, gift shops, and "experiences" such as  "Jouiney Behind the Falls" and "Niagara's Fury", the latter a Disney production. 

Entrance to the Parks is free. It's by the "experiences" that they get you. (Did I mention the gift shops?) Niagara's Fury -- a Disney-produced movie projected on curve screens that surround the viewer -- opened in 2008. It was getting a little long in the tooth so was closed last season, to be replaced by a new and even more wonderful attraction called "Niagara Takes Flight". 

What you see below is a screen shot from the recently-released promotional video.

Niagara Falls is still "the honeymoon capital of the world", or so the tourism hucksters would have us believe. How better to illustrate that idea than with a picture of a happy couple in a romantic pose. A bi-racial couple, of course, because this is the Age of Woke. Portraying races mixing effortlessly and happily, in perfect harmony, is the vision of reality at the core of the woke, anti-racist, we're-all-the-same-under-the-skin canon.

It's not just Niagara Parks. If you watch TV or streaming services or anything of that nature, you'll see couples like this more times than you can count, in much greater proportion than their existence in the reality of Western society. We are encouraged to believe that iner-racial coupling is normal... or should I say "more normal" than the old-fashioned, pre-woke idea of sticking to your own kind.

Did you notice that this couple consists of a black -- well, brown actually, not too black -- man and a very white woman. [Well, she could have been blonde! Ed.] This too is very normal. Roughly 99.44% of bi-racial couples you see in TV commercials looks like this. The other 0.56% are the other way `round -- white man and black woman.

Walt's innocent question: Why is this? Do the creators of these fantastical videos not know that for decades sociologists have been studying and bemoaning the complaints of black women that so many black men "marry out", preferring white women to women of colour? Many black women have told researchers that they feel they can't compete with women who look like the ones in the picture.

To make matters worse (for black women), a lot of black men don't care what the white woman looks like as long as she likes... really likes... black men, to the point of doing anything... anything... to get one.

You don't believe me? Take a look at the real world as seen on TV newscasts. If you watch a story about a black(ish) or mulatto kid who was either the victim or the perpetrator of a crime, you've got a better-than-even chance that the baby momma standing by home because "he's a good boy, just trying to get his life together and become a rap artist" will be a rotund white woman. Where, you may wonder, is the kid's father? Long gone, Jackson!

But hey, that's just the difference between the fake world of advertising (Why do those bi-racial couples always live in a better house than mine?) and the real world in which you and I live. All the affirmative action and DEI in the world ain't gonna change that.

VIDEO: Best "Buy Canadian" TV ad so far this year

President Trump has managed to do something which Canadian politicians can only yap about and dream of. With his repeated public statements about turning the Great No-longer-white North into the 51st of the Disunited States of America, he has united Canadians of every region, every province, every language, every [Get on with it. Ed.] etc. 

You'd be hard-pressed indeed to find a single Canuck, who wants to share in the benefits of being part of the US of A, such as unaffordable health care, unrestricted gun ownership, incomprehensible politics, and the joys of DEI and other constructs of America's liberal democracy.

The odd thing is that the chief practitioner and beneficiary of the Politics of TDS is Mark Carnage, Canuckistan's Prime Minister and the archtype of a globalist One-Worlder. On the strength of one polite phone conversation with President Trump -- in which he now admits the Donald did talk about the 51st state things -- Mr Carnage has wrapped himself in the maple leaf flag for his role as Captain Canada, proclaiming that he is the only one who can save the GNN from the invasion of the Merkans.

The effects of TTDS -- Trump Tariff Derangement Syndrome -- are already noticeable in the form of many and various "Buy Canadian" campaigns. Retailers are busy labelling any Canadian products they can find (most things are made in China or the USA) with little maple leaves and "Product of Canada/Produit du Canada" stickers. 

Canadian marketers are all in -- elbows up! -- on this, flooding the media with ads proclaiming their Canuckiness. Some of the commercials are pretty clever. This is one of them, which we hereby enter into the competition for the 2025 Wally Award for Creativity in Advertising (Canadian Division).    . 

Pretty funny, eh! Dear American readers, see if you can figure out the brand of American soup which Aylmer says you shouldn't buy because there's is... errr... more Canadian. Hint: once upon a time the American soup used to feature a pic of smiling and obese (therefore American?) kids on the label. The company name sounds as if it should be Scottish, but it ain't!

VIDEO: Early favourite for TV commercial of the year

It's early going, but this ad looks like a good bet for the coveted Wally Award for TV Commercial of the Year.

 

Oh... almost forgot... it's for Norwegian State Railways.

VIDEO: The secret to Walt's longevity

Readers ask, "Just how old is Walt Whiteman, anyway?" Now that Ed. has been relieved of his duties, it can be revealed that Walt is, indeed, as old as dirt. The real question is: how does he overcome the creeping senility which has laid low the likes of Crooked Joe Biden and Francis the Talking Pope. 

The answer is... wait for it... Coca-Cola. Walt receives a daily infusion of the Pause That Refreshes, celebrated in song in this TV commercial.

"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" is a pop song which originated as an advertising jingle, produced by Billy Davis and sung by the Hillside Singers in 1971. A few months later, the New Seekers also had a hit with the song, with the lyrics amended to remove the reference to the Big Drink.

VIDEO: Specsavers scoops coveted Wally Award

Just because I'm not posting much this year doesn't mean I've given up. When it comes to my three favourite topics -- religion, hockey and politics [not necessarily in that order. Ed.], it just seems that we're in a lull, or a calm before the storm -- just waiting for something truly blogworth to happen.

The National Hockey League playoffs are upon us, and since the Montréal Canadiens are out, our Sports (read: Hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, has gone fishing. See below?

As for religion, the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church continues. Just before Easter, it looked like God might finally intervene and do something about Jorge Bergoglio, the man who calls himself Pope Francis. But no. Pope Bergoglio is back to his usual routine of saying three woke things before breakfast, while we "Rad Trads" wait for something providential to happen.

Then there's politics. In Canada, Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface can't be dislodged since he has a deal, in writing, with the socialists to prop up his minority government no matter what. He could break wind in King Charles' face and they'd still support him. The deal expires in 2025, so forget about Canuckistan until then.

The Excited States of America is disintegrating in front of our eyes as well as behind our backs. Later today I'll review Colin Woodard's American Nations, a 2011 book containing some scary analysis of the state of the Disunion, along with a dirfe prediction. 

All that Mr Woodard foresaw is happening, in spades. Cooked Joe Biden has announced that he will run for re-election, and that's fine with the New York Times, which opines that the US of A can get along without a fully functional president. Why? Because (although the NYT doesn't say so) the Deep State is running everything, for better or worse... mostly worse.

So... I've been watching a lot of non-news TV, wallowing in the wokeness and other stupidity, which is relieved occasionally by a clever commercial. I'm not going to wait until the end of the year to announce the winner of the coveted Wally Award for Excellence in TV Advertising. It goes to the agency who created this fine piece of work for Specsavers.

 

I do wonder if this was created by Canadians. Perhaps Steve Smith and Rick Green, the chief writers for the old Red Green TV show. Sure looks to me like Red and his nephew Harold! Well done, whoever you are.

VIDEO: A word from our OTHER sponsor

Walt is pleased to note that hundreds of people are still checking out WWW every day, in spite of our not putting up any new and/or vital content.

They must be looking through the archives for politically incorrect social commentary. Most of what we've put up since 2009 is still there, and you can use the search window to find trenchant thoughts on, say, "illegal immigrants".

Sadly, the sponsor who sustained us for some 13 years has pulled out, like a Catholic who doesn't want to be a father again. To win him back, we're running the commercial below, to demonstrate the awesome power of video advertising.

You know it's a spoof, right? From South Park, S4E6. If you were fooled, even for a few seconds, that just proves what Walt has been saying for years, that there are certain products and causes which would we'd rather not see touted on the idiot's lantern.

That's it for the moment. When the political / religious waters start to heat up, we'll be talkin' at ya.

2022 Wally Awards: Best TV commercial

A few days ago we revealed the winner of the 2022 Wally Award for Worst TV Commerical. Here's the positive counterpart -- Best TV commercial for 2022.

How clean is your floor? Thanks and Happy New Year to Agent 6 for submitting this.

2022 Wally Awards: Worst TV commercial

Think about this. You're a creative genius at the agency that handles AirBnB. For your punishment, the account exec hands you, just in time for Christmas Winter Holiday, a problem that "only you can solve": create a message that will overcome the negative publicity about guests wrecking hosts' short-term rentals, and persuade them it's safe to list their homes.

So you do some research, maybe some polling or focus group stuff, to find out what people are afraid of. Turns out people are afraid of "strangers". Specifically, people who aren't from the same "community". Most short-term rental homes are owned by racist colonialist white people, who are afraid of renting to, errr, other-complected people.

The evil white supremacists are afraid to rent to black people because those BLM types will trash their homes. And they're afraid that people who they call by a name that rhymes with "lackeys" will leave their homes smelling of curry... or worse. 

What can we say that would overcome this innate fear of The Other. How about showing some of them renting out their own million-dollar homes to some white folks? Nahhhh. How about... well, damn! No matter which races we show, it's gonna be misinterpreted. Political correctness means we can barely mention the fears we're addressing. Even the word "stranger" is verging on the improper, because, as we all know, there are no more "strangers" in the Brandon's Woke America.

Then, rising from somewhere in your subconscious, you remember a grainy old photo which was said to show a... a... a sasquatch, crashing through the brush. Perfectly PC because a sasquatch is obviously (d) none of the above!

And so you pitch, and AirBnB buys this... the winner of the coveted Wally Award for the Worst TV Commercial of the year 2022.

 

If the idea of having a family of sasquatches stay in your house for a week or two doesn't disturb you, you won't agree with our judges' decision, but frankly, Walt et al. found it just plain stupid.

Footnote: Some nigglers may say, rightly, that this commercial has been around for a year. We know that. It was flighted just over a year ago, too late for inclusion in last year's nominations. So we carried it forward, and with the only competition being the numberless commercials showing black bankers, brain surgeons and billionaires, it was an easy winner.

VIDEO: Latest Wally winner

We introduced the Wally awards (originally called "Commies", but changed because, well...) for outstanding creativity in advertising. Previous winners have included TV spots for the Nissan Rogue (twice), the Bank of Nova Scotia ("Gear of a Champion"), Dairy Farmers of Canada (for telling the truth in 10 seconds), and the famous Olex caveman commercial. 

That one appeared way back in 2015, and for some reason "caveman" commercials have been popular ever since. Perhaps they appeal to the primitive man in all of us. Or maybe they just tickle the funny-bone. Larry David has done some excellent work in this genre, but our latest Wally Award for Creativity in Television Advertising goes to the creators of "Early Adopters", a spot for Wealthsimple Crypto.

   

For those who haven't heard of it, Wealthsimple Technologies Inc. is an online financial services company that has seen a surge in new retail clients throughout the Plannedemic with its zero-fee trading platform. In this spot they're trying to talk us into investing in crypto currencies like Bitcoin. The appeal is to old fogies like Walt, who refuse to get in on the Latest New Thing.

Seems that clever advertising doesn't always help companies that market something that people are skeptical about. This week, Wealthsimple's largest shareholder devalued the stock by 20% as the broad-based sell-off of publicly traded technology stocks spreads to private markets. 

IGM Financial, a subsidiary of Power Corp. of Canada, revealed in its latest financial statements released Thursday that it had marked down its valuation for Wealthsimple to $925 million as of March 31st, from $1153 billion at the end of 2021. 

"This is not a reflection of the business model, its prospects or the management at Wealthsimple," said IGM CEO James O’Sullivan. "We are extremely proud of Wealthsimple as their largest shareholder but from a distance, you only have to look at the publicly-traded fintech companies to see that valuations have reset and so this reflects our judgment as to what an appropriate value is."

Maybe so, but if I played the markets, I'd be investing not in Wealthsimple, but in the advertising agency that created this Wally award-winning commercial.

Random thoughts, and a Wally-winning VIDEO

Things have been pretty intense for the last month or so. I think you, dear readers, deserve a break. Me too. So here are a couple of items from the slushpile, and a video that will make any parent chuckle. 

Bet Ya Didn't Know Dept.

Catherine II, aka Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia in the18th century, was not Russian! She was born in 1729 in the tiny German principality of Anhalt-Zerbst [commonly known as "A-Z". Ed.], Her father was Prince Christian of A-Z, and she was baptized Sophia Augusta Frederica. Her parents and friends called her "Fiekchen", a diminutive of "Sophia". I guess you have to speak German to understand that.

When she was taken to Russia as the wife of the future Tsar Peter III, she converted from heretical Lutheranism and was admitted to the Orthodox Church, and took the name Catherine Alexeievna. How about that.

Pandemic Madness Dept.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reports that at this very moment 6,035,208 of the world's people have died of the Wuhan flu. That's slightly more than 6 million of a world population of roughly 7.9  billion. Thus the mortality rate from the New Black Death is... let's see... carry the 1... something like 0.0756%. 

In other words [figures, shurely. Ed.] <1/10th of 1%. The mortality rate from the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19 is estimated to have been 2%. Do you still think we're wrong to call the current "crisis" a "Dempanic"?

By the way, did you get all three (and counting) of your shots? Are you still wearing your mask, or "chin diaper" as our friend Michael Matt calls them? How has all that worked out for you? Did you get sick anyway? Just askin'

TV Wokeness Dept.

Has anyone else noticed that Family Guy has become really lame, to the point of wokeness, lately?  The main plot line this past Sunday was about Peter Griffin losing his friends to a lawyer who moved in next door. Peter felt abandoned and sad, until the lawyer made him see that Quagmire, Cleveland and Joe were still his friends, and they all lived happily ever after. The lawyer, by the way, was black. ("Helloo dere. I'se yo new neighbuh!")

There's been a lot of that -- black lawyers, doctors, financial advisors and other well-spoken professional people -- on TV lately. Not to mention happy, upwardly mobile mixed-race couples. They appear prominently in dramas, comedies, and even TV commercials for woke corporate America. I don't see any of them in my neighbourhood though. How about you?

Wally Awards Dept.

Speaking of TV commercials, here's one for an expensive car that is not being driven by a BIPOC. And it's not a BMW either. This one gets the coveted Wally for excellence in creative advertising.

 

Any parent who's ever had to sit through a high school orchestra concert can appreciate that one!

Whatever Happened To? Dept.

Oh. Yes. Catherine the Great. She was the wife of Tsar Peter III, right? How did she get to be Empress of All the Russias? Well sir... Catherine not only changed her name but learned the language and went out of her royal way to become more Russian than the Russians. She was much loved by the people, unlike her husband, who was loated almost as much as Just In Trudeau is by the people of Canuckistan.

Catherine formed a party devoted to her interests and the overthrow of the Tsar. When Peter foolishly retired to his country estate in June of 1762, two young army officers took Catherine to St Petersburg, where the troops proclaimed her empress and swore their allegiance to her.

When advised of the coup d'état, Peter didn't know whether to shit or wind his wristwatch (as the crude saying of those times had it). He finally abidcated without condition. He was then arrested on Catherine's order, and sent to the estate of the two officers (who happened to be btothers). There Peter died, four days later, in mysterious circumstances.

Upon receiving news of her husband's death, Catherine dined in public with her customary tranquil air. Not until the next day did she announce the Tsar's demise, in these words: "We have received the information to our great sorrow and affliction that it was God's will to end the life of the former Tsar Peter III by a sever attach of haemorrhoidal colic."

End of story. Source: Ergang, Robert: Europe from the Renaissance to Waterloo, D.C. Heath & Co., 1954.

VIDEO: Poetic justice for an eco-warrior

It has been some time since we presented our coveted Wally award, given to the few TV commercials which really tickled the old humerus. Fact is, there haven't been many truly funny commercials made since the Dempanic set in. All the advertisers are busy virtue-signalling. I think if I hear one more spokesthingy for one more Fortune 500 corporation tell us that they feel our pain and are standing by us in this difficult time, I'm going to scream.

I'm tired of being reminded that Covid-19 isn't funny. Life isn't funny. Nothing is funny, any more. So let's look back a couple of years, to the good old days when ad agencies could get away with making something like this commercial for the Kia Niro, "the new game-changing hybrid SUV designed for versatility and fuel efficiency." [Send cheque by courier, please. I don't want it to get lost with all the vote-by-mail ballots. Ed.]

VIDEO: Wally award for best TV commercial of 2019

Hey kids, it's time for our (more or less) annual presentation of the coveted Wally award for best TV commercial of the year. May I have the envelope, please... Cue drum roll (as in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)... And the winnter is... "SKIP Tour de force". Credits below.



Agence : Arrivals + Departure et TMO - Directeur artistique : David Lamarche
Conception-rédaction : Kristina Landry - Producteur d'agence : Annick d’Auteuil
Maison de production : Cinélande
Producteur : Jérôme Couture - Réalisateur : Jean-François Asselin

There's a lot of great stuff coming out of Québec, not just French versions of English commercials, but original stuff. Congratulations to all involved!

VIDEO: Wally award for truth (and humour) in advertising

It's been some time since we awarded the coveted Wally prize for outstanding creativity in advertising. Previous winners have included TV spots for the Nissan Rogue (twice), the Bank of Nova Scotia ("Gear of a Champion") and the famous Olex caveman commercial. Click on the "TV commercials" tag at the end of this post to see others.

Truth is another matter, as we know only too well, so when an advertiser can tell the truth and make us laugh, doing so deserves recognition. Today we honour the creative people responsible for this 15-second spot for the Dairy Farmers of Canada.



That explains why Canadians would still buy home-grown [??? Ed.] milk, even if their government didn't slap a customs duty of nearly 300% on the alleged milk imported from the USA. And yes, they do sell it in plastic bags.

VIDEO: TV commercials of the year

Acidulous readers ["assiduous", shurely! Ed.] of WWW know that Walt likes, from time to time, to post TV commercials which are funny or creative or stupid, or any two of those three. Every now and then we give out our TV commercial of the year award. Click here to see who won the prestigious "Wally" for 2017.

Since that post is only a month old, you may be surprised to see "TV commercial of the year" in today's header. Ah, but I didn't say what year! The year is, in fact, 1962. Murray Westgate compares a 1919 headlamp with modern Atlas products which improve visibility, such as Arctic wiper blades, solvent, ice remover and headlights, sold at Imperial Esso gas stations across Canada. Spoiler alert! Mr Westgate wasn't really an Esso dealer, just a pitchman, but what a fine pitchman he was!



Murray Westgate was there for the start of television in Canada in 1952. With a welcoming smile, friendly eyes and soothing baritone, he was Canada's original TV pitchman. Dressed as a neighbourhood Esso station attendant -- complete with crisp black bow tie and peaked cap -- he extolled the virtues of Imperial Oil in live 90-second commercials, broadcast during Hockey Night in Canada, the country's longest-running TV show.



Mr Westgate also introduced the Hot Stove League -- the panel really did sit around a wood stove -- and it wouldn't have been viewed as unusual for him to become part of the hockey talk. He'd also do the sign off at the end of the night. The HNIC telecasts broadcasts had about two million viewers every Saturday night, remarkable for a country of about 14.5 million at the time when Canada was still the Great White North.

Now he is celebrating a milestone of his own, turning 100 today! Walt and Poor Len [and Ed.! Ed.] wish Murray a HAPPY CENTENARY!

Footnote from Ed.: I have unable to verify the accuracy of the old story that Mr Westgate, arriving for work one night a little tired and emotional, told viewers to drive into their "nearby Imperial Asshole station".

VIDEO: WWW TV commercial of the year 2017

As Frances McDormand said, there are already way too many awards, so one more won't hurt. That's right, campers, it's time for our annual WWW Excellence in Advertising Award for the year 2017. This year we have two strong contenders. The first to be nominated was "Gear of a champion", advanced last spring by the Bank of Nova Scotia to prove that even big banks can be athletic supporters.

The other, first flighted last fall, is "Return of the Snowman", which Walt believes was created by the same agency that did "Winter Warriors", our winner for 2013. Our apologies, but YouTube... or someone... has taken down the video to which that post links. Here's the 2017 version, even better than the first one -- a minute of winter horror for Nissan Canada.



And the winner is... may I have the envelope please... cue drum roll... "Gear of a champion"!

Note from Ed.: We don't really do this every year, just whenever there's something that tickles Walt's funny bone, like the Olex caveman commercial which should have won in 2014 except we forgot.

VIDEO: Horrible, racist TV spot for "Darky Toothpaste"

Way back in January of 2012, Walt posted "Politically correct toothpaste makes your smile brighter", a quick history of the transformation of "Darkie Toothpaste" into "Darlie Toothpaste". Yes, there is such a product. You can still buy it in parts of Asia and in some dollar stores on this side of the Pacific, if you want to have a smile like unto that of a... errr... read the article.

Ed. has now stumbled upon this SPOOF TV commercial for "Darky Toothpaste", which some readers may find amusing. Others will surely find it offensive, but hey, snowflakes, it's not real! It's satire! I'll place it in context for you below the window.



The "Darky Toothpaste" spot was one of a series of blatantly racist commercials made for the fictional TV station "Channel Six" in the low-budget film C.S.A : The Confederate States of America.

The 2004 "mockumentary" was directed by Kevin Willmott, who drew his inspiration from Ken Burns' monumental PBS series The Civil War. It is an account of an alternate history wherein the Confederacy wins the American Civil War and establishes a Confederate States of America that incorporates the majority of the Western Hemisphere, including the former contiguous United States, the "Golden Circle", the Caribbean, and South America.

The film primarily details significant political and cultural events of Confederate history from its founding until the early 2000s. The director's intention, he said, was to satirize real-life issues and events, and to shed light on "the continuing existence of discrimination in American culture." C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America" was released on DVD in August of 2006. I'll post the trailer for you later today.

VIDEO: "Gear of a champion"

Ed. here. Walt is feeling disgruntled today, trying to find some positives in the defeat of Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election.
Likewise Poor Len Canayen, unhappy with the progress of the National Hockey League playoffs (although he stands by his bet on Pittsburgh). The two of them seem to have gotten into the jellied gin, so will not be contributing anything to WWW today.

While we wait for them to pull themselves together, let's enjoy a strong entry in the WWW TV Commercial of the Year contest. Bidding fair to win a coveted Waltie is "Gear of a champion", advanced by the Bank of Nova Scotia to prove that even big banks can be athletic supporters.



For non-Canucks, I should point out -- and this is what I like about the spot -- that the two kids are First Nations people... or "Indians", as they were known in the pre-PC daze.

VIDEO: Return of the evil snowmen!

Almost three years ago, Walt awarded the coveted WWW Excellence in Advertising Award (known as a "Wally") to the agency which created "Winter Warrior" -- that's the official title but I like "Evil Snowmen" better -- for Nissan Canada. The spot featured menacing snowmen (or snowwomen -- hard to tell the difference) trying to stop a Nissan Rogue, and failing of course. After over 3,000,000 hits the ad was taken off YouTube, but Ed. has found a recent repost, which you can view by clicking here.

After the mild winters of 2015 and 2016, the evil snowmen are back! They look a bit cuter this time -- less threatening to younger viewers, perhaps -- but they're still trying to stop that Rogue, and still failing... left out in the cold, as it were. Enjoy.



Note from Ed.: No, we don't get a dime from Nissan or the ad agency or even YouTube for posting this. We just like it. That's all.