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Marc: The Canadian Pacific Railroad was designed as a link
to bind the country of Canada together.
The company behind the railroad,
Canadian Pacific, soon became the advertising engine
behind Canada's first branding campaign.
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As the first creative director of Canada's brand,
William Van Horne's famous marketing directive was,
"If we can't export the scenery,
we'll have to import the tourists."
(chatter)
(train engine and whistle)
Marc: To communicate the majesty of the country,
Van Horne hired Notman Company in Montreal
and, uh, they toured all through Canada
and these photos were used as a basis
for posters and brochures.
The idea of Van Horne
was to compete with Switzerland and the Alps.
Some publicities declared the Rockies were like 25,
or 30, or even 50 times Switzerland.
(train engine and whistle)
The company efforts, uh,
established key lakes and mountains and wilderness
as iconic symbols of Canada.
Uh, you- you had some fantastic hotels like the Banff Springs
and Lake Louise where you had some breathtaking views.
These started some postcard image, uh, of Canada.
The landscape, the scenery is, uh,
much more emphasized than the hotel and on some posters
you even don't have a view of the hotel,
you look from inside outside on the scenery.
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Very quickly both foreigners and Canadians
were identifying the richness of, uh, Canadian nature,
who is the Canadian Pacific.
(train whistle)
(train engine)
(horse neighing)
Marc: The next step taken by the company was, of course,
to try to attract the other people than the real upper class
and one way was, uh, to develop some camps and activities.
There were dozens of fabulous posters
trying to attract skiers.
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Marc: One campaign was called, "Shoot big game,"
trying to attract people with killing animals,
any animal you wanted, birds, moose, bears.
Fishing was big.
This multiplication of posters showing all these animals
that you could see and even kill,
gave an image of Canada that is still, I think, in existence.
(loon call)
A closing of the Montreal silkscreen studio
in 1972 really symbolized the end
of a remarkable era for the Canadian Pacific
as part of Canada's brand.
Over almost 100 years Canadian Pacific had released thousands
of posters and hundreds of thousands of brochures
in support of a romanticized vision of a new nation.
Maybe only Coca-Cola had an equivalent
output of posters material during that time
and, uh, not even of the same quality.
Canadian Pacific provided both itself and Canada
with a seductive image.
The company introduced a dreamlike vision of both
the destinations and the means of transportation to get there.
(train engine)
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