Viral meme propagation

I posted about the creepy Canadian Tire "husband" in their long-running TV ad campaign earlier this week. Apparently, the meme has metastasized:

That's the top story at the Rogers news portal today. Here is the "diary", and the "full story".

The prince of Simoniz pressure washers — the pitchman on one of Canada's most hated ad campaigns — has proven especially repulsive to bloggers. Every mention of him on the Web results in a string of nasty posts written with a rage so visceral it's hard not to fear for the safety of Canadian Tire Guy's fictional family. If he lived in any real Canadian neighbourhood, somebody would probably have glue-gunned his lips shut. But there he is on TV, showing his neighbours how to attach a set of MotoMaster Precise Fit Teflon windshield wipers, or tightening a bolt with his trusty Mastercraft speed ratchet. He's even spawned wannabes — a selection of would-be Canadian Tire guys and gals who've appeared in commercials this fall.

At lunch earlier this week, we actually discussed this TV spot. Pretty clearly, the Candian Tire couple are supposed to resemble the Hometime couple (Dean Johnson and originally Peggy Knapp, then JoAnne Liebeler, followed by Susanne Egli, Robin Hartl, and Miriam Johnson):

What's up with Dean and all his "wives"?

Okay, here's the story. Dean is not now — and never has been — married to any of his co-hosts. He is happily married, however.

So why did we make it look like Dean and his co-hosts were married? It's a philosophy we called "living the project." When we made it look like Dean and his co-host lived in the houses they worked on, we could delve into the issues of living in a house under construction: cooking in the living room, taking cat baths at the laundry tub, making yet another trip to the home center store, and eating way too much take-out. We even showed them goofing off to remind homeowners to take a break and have a little fun every now and then. Today, we are moving away from the married couple concept, yet taking the "living the project" format even further to include real homeowners pitching in and a unique home improvement crew.