11-06 Father’s Ads, Part One

In the 1950s, while working on a degree in Engineering, I was driven to U of T every morning by Dad. I was always back at the store after water polo practice to get my ride home. At that time, he had not really gotten into what is called editorial advertising, which made him such a well-known figure in Toronto. The attached ad is typical of the kind of small ads he placed at that time. He was so proud of not having a two-piece suit using any of his materials that were more than $75. And he did not charge extra for over-sizes, and some rather huge people were in his customer base.
It was in the 1960s that he became so interested in expressing his views via his ads. He had opinions on everything. I was teaching at Ryerson at the time and in the store every day after classes because I was helping Dad open branch stores. I was always trying to moderate his opinions which I found to be outrageous at times. But every so often one of his ads struck a cord and the attached ad about Dora, one of his tailors, was really touching.
I knew his love for his employees was real. At 12 years of age and working in the factory for the summer, I saw him buying vitamins for an employee who he thought was not looking well.
He got into the Rhodesian issue in the 1970s because the federal government was publicly supporting black rule in Rhodesia. Dad had contact with black Rhodesian senators who considered the black self-rule movement driven by Communist ideology. He had two chums from childhood that lived in Rhodesia. He kept in contact with them over the years.
During that period in the 1970s the government did everything possible to stop Dad's pro-Rhodesian ads and even put pressure on the Globe and Mail to cut off Dad's volume discount which cost him $33K a year, a lot of money in the 1970s.
The real issue for me was the reality that the Prime Minister's Office believed Dad and I was the same person. And at the same time Dad was fighting the government's Rhodesian policy, I was fighting the federal government's policy on taxation, labour relations, unemployment insurance and competition policy.
I warned Dad that he faced a nasty reality that they thkought they are killing two birds with one stone by attacking his advertising relationship with the Globe and Mail.
Well, the attack on his Globe and Mail advertising discount just made him fight the Globe and the Federal Government at the same time. Dad borrowed my PR guy to help him create attack ads designed to embarrass both the Globe and the government. It was a great victory when the Globe and Mail backed down and reinstated his volume discount.
But the big issue at the time was freedom of the press, and how much power a big advertiser like the federal government had in putting pressure on a major newspaper.