Iconic $1.49 Day jingle returns to the airwaves — 64 years later
Save-On-Foods revives award-winning $1.49 Day ad created by Tony Antonias in 1958
Theresa McManus Mar 7, 2023 4:15 PMAn award-winning jingle has hit the airwaves again — 64 years after it was created right here in New West.
Radio listeners may have noticed the familiar sounds of the $1.49 Day ad created by the late Tony Antonias for Woodward’s Department Stores on radio stations in recent weeks. Save-On-Foods is now using the tune for its new $1.49 Day sales.
“We have great respect for the Woodward’s history associated with $1.49 Day Tuesday,” Montana McMullin, internal communications specialist with Save-on-Foods, said in a statement to the Record. “We have recreated it as a new promotion, redeveloped the jingle and are excited to bring back this iconic promotion.”
The Save-On-Foods $1.49 Day jingle hit the airwaves in February, in the lead-up to its inaugural sale on Feb. 21. A second $1.49 sale is happening Tuesday, March 7 (today).
Tony Antonias, who passed away on Jan. 25, 2019 at the age of 89, wrote the $1.49 Day advertisement for Woodward’s, when he was working as the creative director at CKNW.
Woodward’s closed its stores in 1993, and the jingle wasn’t heard again until 2006, when someone from Rennie Marketing Systems called Antonias and asked if they could use the commercial to promote the multi-million dollar Woodward’s District development on the store’s old site in Vancouver.
"I was flattered," Antonias told the Record at the time. "These guys have done their homework. What else would give the project instant recognition? Of course I said yes."
When the company asked Antonias how much money he wanted in compensation for using the commercial, he asked that it make a $1,500 donation to the New Westminster Arts Council's Hilda Cliffe grants program and $1,500 to the Vagabond Players at the Bernie Legge Theatre.
"Rennie was happy to oblige," he said. "And I'm just so glad the money can come back into the Royal City where the legendary ad was created."
If you’d like to hear Antonias talk about the jingle — and hear him play the original version — check out this video from the Record’s archives,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZAdMdIMlmIFrom New Westminster Record, March 7, 2023.
https://www.newwestrecord.ca/local-news ... er-6662382