I wrote about the Lorain store's 1967 Grand Opening here.
What amused me about the discount chain was that in many of its late 1960s Journal newspaper ads, none other than Tony the Tiger of Kellogg’s Sugar Frosted Flakes cereal fame is used as the Giant Tiger advertising mascot (which I wrote about here). Whether this was done with or without Kellogg’s consent I’m not sure. Nevertheless, this tiger poaching went on for several years.
It wasn’t until recently however that I discovered that another tiger did indeed prowl the Giant Tiger newspaper ads before Tony. Below is the logo block from a Giant Tiger ad that ran in the Journal on December 10, 1959, promoting the Elyria store. The tiger looks downright menacing, like he should be chasing Mowgli around the jungle.
By the mid-to-late 1960s, however, Tony had replaced the generic tiger. Below is a logo from an October 24, 1968 ad.
A month later, the logo type had been updated – but Tony remained.
By June of 1969, Gaylord’s National Corporation had acquired 82 percent of Giant Tiger stock and changed the name of the 15-store chain to Gaylord’s Giant Tiger (which I wrote about here).
Here's the logo that was used in late February 1970 combining both names.
Eventually the Giant Tiger portion of the name was dropped.
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Meanwhile, up in the Great White North...
A Canadian discount store chain named Giant Tiger (with no connection or relation to the American chain) has been in business since 1961. There are more than 250 stores across Canada.
The Canadian Giant Tiger stores have had the same tiger mascot since the early days. His name? Friendly. Here are a few of his early appearances in ads.
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| A portion of a December 1966 ad |
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| A logo block from a December 1970 ad |
Recently, Friendly has been downplayed in the ads, but he still makes public appearances at company-sponsored events.
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| Courtesy Giant Tiger |
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| Courtesy Giant Tiger |
5 comments:
Maybe it's just me, but "Friendly" looks like he's on something.
Giant Tiger was one of the places my mother bought our clothes, shoes, and school supplies, because it was closer than either Ontario or Hills, although I'm not sure about the prices.
I remember it well. Wasn't that the store that had the roof cave in after a storm?
My wife worked at the Giant Tiger/Gaylord's store in Lorain from before they opened in 1967,during the destruction and rebuilding period after the 1974 Easter storm..She continued there until the final day they were in business,closing in 1983..
The tip of Tony the Tiger is blue, maybe that's how they got away with using not or it's likeness?
Their original name was Big Bear, but when they opened a store in Mansfield, where the Columbus Big Bear grocery chain had stores, they changed it to Giant Tiger. Big Bear of Columbus boasted about a lot of things that weren't true like being the first super market in Ohio (that was Albers in Cincinnati which coined the term "super market") and they took the name from an earlier Big Bear in New Jersey which was one of the very earliest super markets.
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