Michael Mills hopes to make the plaid jacket-wearing neighbourhood dealer a mercifully forgotten part of television's past.

To sweep the airwaves clean of schlocky low-budget local ads and entice other small advertisers onto the small screen, Mr. Mill's Montreal commercial production company has created a series of mainly animated spots - cartoon characters don't get paid royalties - for businesses ranging from garden centers and dry cleaners to hardware stores.

The ads come with original music, sound effects and pre-written scripts that are customized by adding an advertising logo and a unique voice-over.

Mr. Mills' company, Michael Mills Productions Ltd., is selling the pre-fab ads to local television stations in the United States and Canada. Ad representitives from the broadcasters then have the task of selling the local pet shop on the joys of late night television.

"A lot of local advertisers are reluctant to go on TV," Mr. Mills explains. "One of their fears is their commercial is going to look silly against big budget ads. A little pizzeria for example is reluctant to advertise on TV because he knows damn well his commercial isn't going to look as good as Domino's" The animator does not believe his spots will irritate the ad agencies and big advertisers that are his main clients because he is targeting an untapped market . This is aiming at a market that they could never approach anyway," he said, adding "it's purely local advertising - it's not treading on the toes of the national advertisers."

Mr. Mills has sunk deep roots in the TV commercial production business. Established 25 years ago, his company says it is the country's oldest animation studio and has produced about 1000 spots over that span. Perhaps his most famous effort is the changing watercolour ad for the country's milk marketing boards which ran for years.

Last month, Mr. Mills' company began the task of selling 42 spots in 20 different categories it has designated as volume one. To date, a total of 14 Canadian stations and seven American locals have purchaesd the spots for about $5,000 for one year. Since the autumn period is mostly presold by broadcasters, the ads will for the most part appear on late-night television over the next few months. "The true test will be in the winter," Brian Burko, manager of regional and local sales at Montreal station CFCF-12. He envisions the spots attracting special occasion advertisers such as florists, which only consider TV around Mother's Day, or small restaurant chains. For the most part, these advetertisers currently rely on radio where ad production is free or nearly so.

"These guys are in love with their businesses and they wouldn't want a cheap-looking commercial," Mr. Burko said. " Their vision is what they have seen nationally on TV. When they describe a spot to you, it would cost them $15,000 and that is their whole advertising budget. By having these spots which we aren't bearing the whole cost for because they are selling them in many markets we get to offer this fellow a very cute animated commercial for his Italian restaurant."

CFCF-12's five-person local advertiser sales team plans to approach Mr. Mills' first 20 categories the old-fashioned way.

"They will be basically opening he old yellow pages, making lists of the categories of spots and basically trying to product peddle," Mr. Burko said.

Mr. Mills, twice nominated for an Oscar and one of the few Canadian members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has toyed with the idea of the pre-packaged spots for about five years before finally committing to the venture this year. There was some risk to the 15-person team of animators and film makers creating the first 42 ads with no upfront buyer, but having a tangible product made the sales job easier.

"I don't think we would have been willing to buy them sight unseen," said Mr. Burko. "We needed to see his VHS tape" of ads.

Advertisers such as CFCF-12 are also signing up because they are being asked to give input into what categories should be included in the second flight of ad which are now in production and expected to be released early next year.