Trump's attack on Ontario's Reagan ad helped amplify its reach

"The move seemed to do little to placate Trump, who told reporters later Friday he was satisfied with the current trade arrangement with Canada and had no plans to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney during summits in Asia over the next week. While it's too early to gauge the lasting effect of the campaign, its immediate impact was dramatic. Online views of the ad spiked, even as efforts to suppress it grew, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the Streisand Effect."

"As of 7:30 a.m. Friday in Toronto, the original social-media post from Ford containing the ad had been viewed 578,000 times over eight days. Five hours later, that figure was a million. By Saturday morning, it had reached 1.5 million. The funny irony here is that in the wake of Trump's post, now the whole world knows what Reagan said about tariffs as opposed to this just being targeted ads by the Ontario government, said Bank of Nova Scotia economist Derek Holt."

"In the global portfolio of political ads that changed history, a handful stand out. In the UK, the famed Labour Isn't Working poster of 1978 has long been credited for helping Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government sweep to power the following year. Before that, the Daisy political ad, created for U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign against Barry Goldwater, was pulled from the air for fear-mongering in 1964 but also deemed tremendously effective."

An Ontario 60-second political ad using excerpts from Ronald Reagan's 1987 radio address led President Donald Trump to end all trade talks with Canada, threatening a bilateral trading relationship worth about $900 billion annually. Ontario Premier Doug Ford halted the ad campaign after the spot aired during the two opening World Series games, but the message had already gone viral. Online views of the original social-media post jumped from 578,000 to 1.5 million within days, illustrating the Streisand Effect as suppression attempts fueled attention. Economists noted the irony that the controversy publicized Reagan's views on tariffs more broadly.

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