CBC Digital Archives

Marketplace: Spotty skin solutions

Shoddy products and shady businesses: these were the enemies of CBC-TV's Marketplace, a half-hour program that stood up for the Canadian consumer. Beginning in 1972, Stompin' Tom Connors sang the theme as hosts Joan Watson and George Finstad presented a lively parade of product tests, safety alerts and money advice. CBC Digital Archives presents full episodes from 1974 and 1975, a period when Marketplace regularly drew over 1.7 million weekly viewers.

In their desperation to be free of unsightly pimples, teenagers can be easily swayed by ads promising better skin. In an attempt to clear up some of the confusion about treating acne, this 1975 episode of CBC's Marketplace talks to a dermatologist. Elsewhere in the show, Winnipeg's Marilyn Booth explains how she feeds her family of five on a strict budget. There's a warning about mesh-sided playpens, which can pose a strangulation hazard, and consumer advocate Beryl Plumptre rails against certain supermarket practices.  
• In the early 1970s Canada was experiencing a period of escalating food prices. In response, the government created the five-member Food Prices Review Board in 1973. With Beryl Plumptre at the helm, the board's mandate was to analyze food prices and the forces that drove them. The board had the power only to make recommendations to the government, not to enforce any regulations on prices.

• The Anti-Inflation Act of 1975 was the government's response to rapidly rising consumer prices and wages. In the previous year, the Consumer Price Index - an annual measure of the cost of a standard "basket" of goods and services including food, fuel and mortgage interest - had risen 10.7 per cent. (Compare that with 2007, when the rate hovered around 2 per cent.) The Anti-Inflation Board limited wage increases and had the power to order consumer rebates and price reductions. It was disbanded in 1979, a year after wage and price controls were gradually removed. 

Medium: Television
Program: Marketplace
Broadcast Date: Oct. 12, 1975
Guest(s): Marilyn Booth, Beryl Plumptre, Walter Unger
Host: George Finstad, Joan Watson
Duration: 24:36

Last updated: October 3, 2012

Page consulted on March 26, 2013

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