Advertising is everywhere.
From this website, you're reading right now, to the grill of a car, to a Canucks' helmet.
As something so ubiquitous, there are often little stories around ads and commercials, though they don't always reach the news.
Here are five advertising facts about Vancouver that no one paid for.
Nearly 20 years ago a single Vancouver bus stop had stacks of fake money (and a little real cash on top) placed inside one of the glass sides and was left alone.
While it was estimated to hold millions of dollars, it was later reported to be closer to $500, with fake bills filling the rest of the space.
Passersby were challenged to break the glass and keep the cash, but no one was able to.
It was an ad for 3M's security glass, and therefore a little sturdier than the average bus stop.
At the same time, it didn't stick around for too long—about a day. Over that time several people tried to get in; 3M got footage and photos of the campaign and it became an earlier viral ad on the internet. It's by various advertising folks for articles or social media posts.
2. Adbusters started with a
may be world famous now as an anti-capitalist magazine and culture not-for-profit, but it started with a local TV ad.
Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz, the founders of the Adbusters Media Foundation, were a pair of documentary makers frustrated by what they saw as greenwashing by the forestry industry in commercials on Vancouver TV stations.
So they decided to make their own ad, counter to the industry narrative.
However, they weren't able to get airtime for their TV spot. was then created to counter corporate media control.
3. Vancouver was featured in an
In an effort to appeal to fans of Japanese anime-style shows and design, Destination Canada reached out to Makoto Shinkai.
It was 2017 and Shinkai had just released the film Your Name which became one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of all time.
He ended up creating Warm, Winter Canada, a 30-second TV ad that showed off several places in the distinct anime style. Vancouver is prominently featured, with Granville Island and the seawall near Canada Place being highlighted.
Banff, Niagara Falls and Toronto are also featured, but Vancouver gets the most screen time.
4. A neon sign with a hula girl caused controversy for depicting the female form
In 1956 there was a minor hullabaloo around a neon sign.
The city was full of them at the time, but this particular custom piece was going to be of a "hula girl" in the 600 block of Seymour Street, according to archived newspapers.
At the time the city's council decided on which signs to allow, and one Alderman Earle Adams raised an issue with the sign.
According to an article in the Vancouver Province from June 1956, Adams "felt the city should be protected in the future from signs which might "go too far" in use of the female form in outdoor advertising."
His objections were overruled and the sign was allowed.
Well-known honour columnist Eric Nicol took shots at Adams a few days later in a tongue-in-cheek written piece.
"Once the female form works into outdoor advertising we'll have to cry havoc and keep the womenfolk indoors," he wrote. "Does anybody doubt, for instance, that a neon hula dancer on Seymour Street will double the accident rate for motorists?"
5. Rethink is
That 3M bus stop ad was the work of a local ad agency called Rethink; at the time it was a relatively new venture, having been founded in Vancouver in 1999.
Since then it could be considered a constantly up-and-coming agency as it has consistently won awards.
Now in its 25th year, it was just named the Independent Agency of the Year by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (a prestigious, global advertising festival, akin to the Cannes Film Festival, but for ads). It took second place in the overall "Agency of the Year" and placed first in numerous categories.
At the same time The Drum, a magazine covering the global advertising industry, has Rethink at the top of its world creative rankings.
