Tuesday, May 21, 2013


By now you may have seen the mysterious “You Lit A Fire” ad that recently appeared in a Toronto newspaper. If not, you can view a copy of the ad here. Really, I can't recommend it highly enough.

The ad is interesting for several reasons, not the least of which is that we don’t know who paid for it. But it’s that quasi-poetic and sort of creepy repeated mantra of “You Lit A Fire” that really makes it memorable. What does it all mean? Nobody seems to know for sure.

But while the circumstances around this particular ad are a little bit unusual, these sorts of paid messages actually show up in newspapers fairly often this time of year. In fact, I’ve seen several similar ads in various newspapers around the league over the past few days.

Just in case you don't believe me, I cut a few out out and scanned them for you.

For example, this recently showed up in a Colorado paper.

This one was in Vancouver...

You know, maybe this guy should just stop dealing with the media entirely...

This was in Boston, and it actually kind of explains a lot.

I admire the effort, but I don't think this is going to work.

Come to think of it, this one may appear annually in Calgary.

And finally, this one just showed up this morning in a Toronto paper:




  1. The link to the original ad is very broken.

    This is the actual link:


    - Single Typo Guy

  2. I haven't seen it, but your link to the original ad is broken.

  3. I think this means that DGB was the one who bought that Toronto ad...

  4. You Lit a Fire! Typical Leafs, fall in the autumn, dead in the winter and come together for a short time in the spring to get burned! Lit a fire alright.

  5. Get bent... Classic.

  6. The refs even spell Kesler's name wrong (the extra S is for "selling it") - that was a very subtle addition there, Sean. Well done.

    You meant to do that, right?

    1. everyone from toronto misspells "kesler". and cherry is so, so proud.

  7. Agreed.....

    Gent bent.

    Pure gold.

  8. Did Bruce Garrioch pay for the Senators' ad ?

    1. Couldn't be. Garrioch never tries to work at anything that isn't edible.

  9. I was expecting the Vancouver one to be addressed to the fans and to reference an ongoing investigation, signed by the Vancouver Metro PD.