The Atlantic Advocate – Part 1: Vintage Trade and Tourism Ads

July 24, 2016 By Brett in History, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island Tags: Canada, Economic Development, Old Advertisements, Tourism, Vintage 19 Comments

Newfoundland Trademarks

The Atlantic Advocate was a general interest magazine published monthly from 1956 through 1992 with a focus on life, culture and business in the four Atlantic provinces — New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. While browsing through a stack of issues from the late ’50s and early ’60s, one of the things that stood out to me was the enthusiastic boosterism of many ads promoting economic development and tourism in those places. The fact that ads of this nature are so prominent in a general interest publication is partly a testament to the economic challenges long faced by the Maritimes and an appreciation by their relatively small populations of the significant impact of industry and natural resources development on daily life in their regions.

Cheeky Humor of Vintage Canadian Tire Catalogues

June 20, 2014 By Brett in Art, Business, History, Humor, Society Tags: Art, Canada, Canadian Tire, Graphics, History, Illustration, Old Advertisements, Vintage 39 Comments

Wherever you go in Canada, you’re probably not far from a Canadian Tire location, a retailer that carries auto parts, sporting goods, hardware and some appliances, clothing and all manner of other goods. Canadian Tire is so popular it even has its own pseudo-currency — Canadian Tire Dollars — that are both usable and collectible. Many of the retailer’s older advertisements featured humorous bits — some slightly suggestive — as illustrated by these Spring and Summer catalogs across the years. (I’ll post later some others from Fall and Winter editions of the C.T. catalogs.)