Badvertising Bill

Back in 1993 the American public still hadn't heard the name Monica Lewinsky. But Toronto's Mayor Mel had already pegged Bill Clinton as a Bad Boy. Mel Lastman was the first mayor of the amalgamated Toronto, and the owner of a chain of furniture stores called Lastman's Bad Boy, known for its gimmicky ads on local television. 

The best of these is an ad staring a Bill Clinton impersonator named Tim Waters. In the ad, posted above, Bad Boy's Hillary even foreshadows the current health care debate--"Free? They even have free health care! Don't you think that's a good idea??" Hillary exclaims. 

As it turns out, America's not crazy about  health care--or Hillary--and after a blow-job blown out of proportion in 1998, the Bill Clinton brand couldn't even help Lewinsky  sell handbags. It's been a decade since this ad ran and Bad Boy is now in the hands of Lastman's son, Blayne, who recently hired a new ad agency to upscale the brand's image--which means, sadly, no more mock-endorsements. 

Cherish low-budget local ads while they last: with the economy returning to track the budgets for the big name brands will return, and with them national advertiser's monopoly, pushing the little guy's media buy right off the air. That means fewer informercials, less retail-tertainment, and a dwindling number of shots of your local used car hyperventilating in front of the camera. So it goes.

I'll miss the flashy, trashy, over-the-top local ads that characterized the last year of low-brow communication. 

2009, you really were the  Best Recession Ever.

Yours truly,

Russ Martin

*My article on the latest Bad Boy advertising campaign and the brand's new ad agency can be read  here