From paper to radio and TV and beyond, advertisements and commercials created in Canada are being gathered and shared online, as part of a virtual museum collection curated by the Canadian Advertising Museum.
It's the first step in what museum organizers hope will be a permanent home for the history of Canadian advertising.
It's a unique project in Canada, but similar endeavours already exist in America, Japan, Germany and the U.K.
Content is classified by the decade of creation in The Works section, and other information sources cover the people, the music, the agencies and the awards associated with many of the most remembered advertising in Canada.
Reproduced print ads, radio spots as audio clips and streaming video clips of TV ads are all available.
The Museum is always accepting new works, and submission information is posted online.
The virtual museum will display advertising which is most representative of its category, of its period and the attendant marketing climate in which it was created and produced.
Joanne Lehman-Amedeo, Vice Chair, said that a panel of six to eight judges selected from the industry, serving for maybe three judgings, would help decide if the submission is a good representative of its time and creation.
Selected content is then shown by the Museum; Lehman-Amedeo noted that if a rights- holding person wants it withdrawn, they will withdraw the submission.
Lehman, also a founder of the museum along with Kate Taylor, helped pull together a group of people form the industry to kick-start its activities and help provide some seed funding, in addition to judging duties.
In addition to the online displays, CAM will also store, archive and display advertising work through exhibitions and seminars on topics of interest.
James Starr of award winning web design and development firm, SpotFrank and Gina Preston, CAM's Sr. Web Project Manager, worked on the project, Lehman added.