- Reaction score
- 2
- Points
- 430
RIP Ted :'(
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060310/canadian_tire_couple_060310/20060310?hub=TopStories
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060310/canadian_tire_couple_060310/20060310?hub=TopStories
Canadian Tire dumps know-it-all neighbour ads
Updated Fri. Mar. 10 2006 7:53 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
He was the country's least favourite neighbour, but Canadians won't have to see him anymore. Canadian Tire has dumped the smug star of their TV commercials and his perky wife.
For eight years, Ted the Canadian Tire Guy dominated the airwaves doling out invaluable advice to his friends and neighbours on everything from wiper blades without hinges to the perfect winter tires.
But, despite wanting being known as the man with a solution to every problem, he simply became known as a know-it-all.
"Very annoying," one man told CTV News.
"Sort of boring, they are sort of annoying after a while," said another.
Actor Ted Simonett played the mild mannered husband, and actress Gloria Slade played his red-headed wife.
"He had this neatly trim beard, he had this smug attitude, he had an irritating tone of voice," Globe and Mail TV Columnist John Doyle told CTV News. "In many ways though, I think to a lot of Canadian men he represented this sort of new neutered male figure."
Doyle ran a survey asking his readers to rank the most annoying people on TV. Canadian Tire's Ted topped the list.
"Some people saw him as a sort of a symbol of rampant wussyness among Canadian males, that's why he really irritated people," Doyle said.
After years of being parodied, mocked, and turned into the poster boy for the new softer, Canadian man, Canadian Tire pulled the plug on the ads. The news became public as the retailer unveiled its new spring ad campaign earlier this week.
Canadian Tire said the couple's "demo-mercials" were effective, but market research showed viewers were starting to grow tired of them.
"It was time for something new, something fresh, something different, and maybe something a little more light hearted," Canadian Tire's Lisa Gibson told CTV News.
So, Ted and his wife are being replaced by a series of no name couples who will use a more humourous, less in your face, sales approach.
The new campaign will debut during Saturday night's edition of Hockey Night in Canada.
One of the new commercials shows a couple eyeing a number of products in their neighbour's backyard. As the couple imagines the possibilities for their own garden, Canadian Tire signs pop up in different parts of the yard showing the different aisles where the products are.
The new ads are being produced by the ad firm Taxi, which took over Canadian Tire's ad account last year from Doner Canada.
While many viewers will be relieved that Ted won't be on their screens anymore, others will mourn his passing, simply because they enjoyed making fun of him.