Bad Boy Furniture is a furniture business in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. 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.
History
The original Bad Boy furniture store was launched by Mel Lastman in the 1950s, who sold it in 1975. 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 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 for furniture?...Nooooooobody!"
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 Nooooooobody! 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]
In a move sure to win sympathy from his fellow Canadians, 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."
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