34 Selling Canada 1900

It costs as much as $8 million to make. Everyone thinks it is very good. It lasts only 60 seconds, but one and a quarter million people see it. It costs as much as $5 million to show it to those people in that minute. It could make those people spend $10 million or more altogether. It is a television commercial.

The television commercials that are shown today during the American Super Bowl football games are the most expensive. Although the television program is American, the commercials shown in Canada are Canadian. Everyone says these commercials are the best. Some people watch the football game just to see these commercials. These commercials have become a culture of their own. People even vote for their favourite one.

In 1900, the first Canadian advertisement made on film was shown. It was made by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the government of Canada. It was not shown to Canadian people, though. The advertisement was made to bring new immigrants to Western Canada to live. There were 35 short films made altogether. The advertisements were called Living Canada. They showed how beautiful Canada was and how easily anyone could become rich in Canada. They were shown to British people to ask them to move to Canada.

The Living Canada films were filmed advertisements, like short movies. However, the earliest advertisements in Canada were printed on paper in the 1700's. Many of them were printed in newspapers. Others were found inside magazines. Some were posters put on walls or inside buildings. Most of the posters were near stores and they advertised food for sale. The very first printed advertisement by the government was in a Halifax city newspaper in 1752. It was an advertisement for butter that was for sale.

Some of the earliest advertising was not made to get people to buy things. For example, there were many posters made to get people to immigrate to Western Canada. Sometimes health posters would tell parents how to stop their children from getting sick. During the war, there were many posters advertising for volunteers. Volunteer soldiers were needed to fight. Volunteer nurses were needed. Volunteer boys were needed to help on the farms while the men were off fighting.

SOME EARLY CANADIAN ADVERTISING WAS MADE TO FIND VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS

It is true, though, that most early advertising was about things to buy or sell. Many were about black slaves. People would advertise that they had a slave for sale. They would advertise that they were looking for their slave who had run away. They would advertise that they needed help on their farm. In 1904, a large department store called Eaton's printed a catalogue. This was like a small magazine with many pages showing pictures of things for sale in the Eaton's store. People who lived in country areas, away from the city, could order these things and have them sent to their house in the mail.

Soon, there was so much advertising that in 1899, Anson McKim started a business in Montreal. Anson helped people put advertisements into newspapers and magazines in Ontario. The newspapers gave him a little money for each advertisement he sold. McKim and Company was the first advertising agency in Canada.

Next came the radio and many more people could hear the advertisement's message. People who were poor and could not buy a newspaper could listen to the radio. People who could not read could listen to the advertisement. People who lived on farms and did not see a poster, or a newspaper, could listen too. Very many people could hear one radio advertisement. Many more people could listen to the radio than could read one paper. Radio advertising became popular for anyone who had something to sell. It became popular for the government when it had a message it wanted everyone to hear.

Soon, there was so much advertising on the radio that Canadians became unhappy. The government had to make laws about advertising. Many of these laws were about advertising to children. For example, they said that advertisers could not make children want to buy anything that was for an adult, such as alcohol. These rules said that the advertisement could not make children do anything that would hurt them. In Quebec, it was simply not legal to advertise to anyone under the age of 12. Today, if anyone complains about a commercial or an advertisement, a special group looks at it. When this group finds the advertising has broken one of the rules, it must be changed or stopped.

After WWII, television became popular. Television had sound. It had colour. It moved. Very quickly advertisers began to spend a lot of money on television commercials. After some time, there were even awards for the best television commercials each year.

Today, there is advertising everywhere. It is on the bus and the taxi cars. It is at the movie theatre and the grocery stores. It is on big signs outside and small business cards. It is on house or car for sale signs. It is not possible to spend a day in Canada without seeing or hearing an advertisement. Of all the advertisers in Canada, there are two who still spend the most money every year to get people to buy their products: General Motors cars and Bell Canada telephones.