Lastman's Bad Boy Furniture
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Lastman's Bad Boy is a Canadian furniture business headquartered in Weston with five other locations in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. It is owned by Blayne Lastman, son of former Toronto City Mayor Mel Lastman. It is famous among the television viewers of southern Ontario largely owing to several memorable advertising campaigns, including a controversial series featuring impersonators of Bill and Hillary Clinton which prompted a response from the White House.
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[edit] History
The original Bad Boy furniture store was a store Mel Lastman (future mayor of Toronto) bought on Weston Road in Toronto in 1955. At the age of 22 this rising salesman began a successful chain of stores across Ontario.
Mel Lastman earned a reputation early on for creating publicity stunts to promote the chain. In the 1960's he went to the arctic to 'sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo'. But always looking for bigger challenges, Lastman entered politics in 1966, getting elected to the North York Board of Control. He would later run for mayor of the city, getting elected in 1972. It was his later attempt for Provincial office in 1975 that resulted in him selling his chain.
Its trademark was ultimately acquired by the large furniture chain The Brick, who allowed it to lapse through lack of use until it expired. In 1991, Blayne Lastman (Mel's son) and several friends re-launched the store, over the objections of his father, who felt the economic climate was unsatisfactory.
The store was soon memorable to most television watchers who saw its commercials, which featured the younger Lastman in a prison suit and a cameo by the elder Lastman (then mayor of the Toronto suburb of North York), and always ended with the line: "Who's better than Bad Boy?...Nooobody!"
[edit] The Clinton affair
In 1993, Lastman saw Clinton impersonator Tim Waters on television, and shortly afterwards contacted him and arranged for a commercial to be shot. The commercial featured Waters dressed as Clinton delivering the classic Nooobody! line.
While merely a mildly amusing commercial to most of the viewing public, Lastman's move did attract some attention, as he soon received a letter from the White House requesting that he "cease and desist all unauthorized use of the likeness of the President of the United States of America in advertising of commercial services and products".[1]
Lastman refused to stop airing the commercials, and even produced several more, featuring both Waters and a Hillary Clinton impersonator. "Last time I checked," he later said, "this was Canada, not the 51st state."
[edit] Competition
Competitors of Bad Boy include:
