Career
Born and raised in Toronto, Rosen lived for a short time in Callander, Ontario. As a teenager he found a job at a tailoring factory for men"s clothes. There he learned about the making of clothing and, more importantly, about men"s shopping habits.
After dropping out of high school he decided to open a men"s clothing store.
In 1961, the store moved to Toronto"s downtown core on Richmond Street. That year Stann Burkhoff, an advertising executive, came in to shop.
Rosen and Burkhoff became friends and Burkhoff arranged to do some ads for the store in exchange for two suits - one for him and one for his art director Together, they developed the "Ask Harry" campaign.
These ads ran in Canada"s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail.
lieutenant was so successful that people from across the country began coming to Harry Rosen. Novel advertisements
He has a long history of advertising in The Globe and Mail. One memorable ad features Rosen having just locked up his store for the evening, when he notices one of his window mannequins reading the Globe and Mail.
Rosen is also carrying a copy in his arm while there is also one of the newspaper"s vending boxes in the background of the street.
Upon spelling the name of Winnipeg wrong after opening the city"s first store there, Rosen later took out an ad in the Winnipeg Free Press saying "I will not spell Winnipegger as "Winnippegger". When the original main store was burned down, Rosen took out an ad which was almost mistaken for an Obituary.
