20 Nov, 2014
Remember those Heritage Minutes?
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Links and other procrastination
So this happened:
And before I could pop another piece in I googled “burned toast” and “Heritage Moment” because TO THIS DAY I can’t smell burned toast without remembering this commercial.
Funnily enough, it took me ages to find it because it’s titled: Wilder Penfield on Historica Canada’s YouTube Channel. Had they called it “I smell burned toast video” it would have been a faster process. :)
But there is a happy ending to this story (other than the fact I got to watch that old commercial again). I realized that many of the videos are archived here! Some of my favourites include: Marshall McLuhan (“THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE!”), Superman, Orphans, Emily Murphy, Agnes Macphail (“IS THIS NORMAL?”), Rural Teacher, Nellie McClung (“Nice women, don’t want the vote.”).
There are many more, many I hadn’t seen. According to this recent Globe and Mail article, the Heritage Minutes “aired frequently on television during commercial breaks in the 90s, but went on a nearly eight-year hiatus. Historica Canada, the organization behind the spots, brought them back in 2012. They are funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, as well as donors – in this case, donors from Winnipeg who wanted to bring awareness to the story of the Winnipeg Falcons.” (There’s another great video in that article, so make sure you watch it.)
It got me thinking: ads work. Scratch that, GOOD ads work. (And it’s something I’ll try to remember the next time someone insists that McDonald’s advertising is easy to ignore and has no impact on decision making). There’s a reason I remember that commercial every time I smell burning toast, and it comes down to good storytelling. And I’m not just talking about the script, but visual storytelling, emotional storytelling. The best kind of content makes us feel something; pride, sadness, joy, anger, surprise. The best ads, and articles, and photographs, and paintings, and podcasts, are the ones that tap into something deep inside our brain and as a result, stick with us for a long time afterwards like the smell of burned toast.
Do you remember the Heritage Minutes? Which one has stuck with you?
