11-05 That Was A Good Ad

Nothing in my memory is more vivid than the extreme reactions to father’s Globe and Mail advertisement that combined religion, politics, or social commentary with the sale of custom clothing.
“Stop that, stop that.” That was the wife of the owner of the grocery store across the road on Hayter Street, reacting to a group of women parading in front of the store in opposition to one of Dad's ads opposing the concept of "women's lib". She had a broom in her hand and was swatting the women. "Mr. Bulloch is a nice man. Mr. Bulloch is a nice man."
And on at least a half-dozen times, someone protesting one of his ads put a brick or rock through one of his plate glass windows. He said he was unable to get plate glass insurance.
It was during my Ryerson years in the 1960s that we had a serious protest against an ad supporting the government of Rhodesia when it was an all-white government. Dad had an emotional link to Rhodesia because his two best chums in Belfast went there to join the Rhodesian Mounted Police, and Dad almost followed them. This time the brick went through an upper level window.
I got the call from Dad about 2:00 AM and he said to get dressed and come down to the store. From the painting of the store, you can see the large window on the upper right part of the store that had been smashed.
When I got there, we had police as well as Dad assessing the damage. He was in his pyjamas covered by an overcoat. He was looking up at the window, remarking how anyone could heave a brick with enough force to go through a second story plate glass window.
But he was genuinely amused. I remember him laughing and saying, "That was a good ad".
After Dad's lifetime, and Peter was operating the family business, the store was relocated to Front Street. No worry about bricks going through the plate glass windows. None of us could write those outrageous ads. Were his ads good for business? Who knows. He didn't care.
Thinking back over the years, the public indeed cared. The Globe told him that his ads had a higher readership than their editorial page. And when a local magazine did a feature story on his ads, they included a priceless artist rendering of Dad pricking his favourite targets with pins. What fun.