Brenton Chin's Blog

Hey everybody!

Today in class we discussed why the hugely anticipated Superbowl commercials are only shown in the USA and not in Canada. Personally, as a  Canadian, I feel our tastes and buying habits are similar enough to the that of Americans that companies who advertise during the Superbowl would receive the same marketing outcome here as they would in America.

I found a post by a fellow Canadian blogger who also shares my view, lamenting that throughout the Superbowl, “[Canadians] mostly tuned out the same old Canadians ads when they came on, as [they] usually do”. I agree with his point whole heartedly, because while I watched the Superbowl commercials, none of the commercials that I watched were new or exciting at all.I

If American companies do not play their commercials in Canada during the Superbowl, why can’t Canadian companies pick up the slack and air their own? The same blogger that I mentioned above did, however, find ONE commercial – Budweiser’s – that was actually unique to Canada and aired during yesterday’s Superbowl – guess I missed  it since I didn’t watch the whole game.

You can check it out at his blog: http://letfreedomrain.blogspot.com/2012/02/best-super-bowl-ad-not-seen-in-us-shown.html

I think it’s interesting how the only commercial during the Superbowl that was unique to Canada was a HOCKEY commercial, but I guess the creators of the video are trying to appeal to our nationalistic pride of being Canadian – and what better way to do it through hockey – Canada’s favorite sport. It also reminded me of one the Chrysler commercials that has become one of America’s token Superbowl commercials: I have posted it below.

Like the Canadian Budweiser commercial, if you watch the video below, you’ll be able to see how this Chrysler commercial directly appeals to the robust nature of American culture – appealing to their hard work-ethic and the consequential pride they feel in what has become known as “The American Dream”. The video I’ve attached is this year’s, however, last year’s Chrysler commercial was deemed “so beautiful” by some Americans that by the end they had shed some tears. Crazy that a commercial can create such a profound response in Americans – but obviously this commercial wouldn’t have had the same effect here in Canada.

Additionally, i remember some one in class pointing out that maybe the CRTC limits American commercials to protect Canadian companies. It seemed pretty plausible when he raised his point, however I went to the CRTC website, which in fact, has a page regarding Superbowl advertising in Canada. It doesn’t look like they restrict anything at all – and blame the non-airing of American Superbowl commercials on “American advertisers choosing not to buy time on Canadian stations” . The only reason that they list – one that is pretty obvious – is that the American products advertised may not be available in Canada.

If you’re interested you can click the link to read more in detail: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/tv12.htm

With that said, I think that American companies are already spending so much money on their commercials, so it should be a no-brainer to buy Canadian advertising and benefit even MORE off a commercial that they have ALREADY made.  An argument might be that our demographic may not be the same, but look how an American company was able to successfully “Canadianize” their American commercial:

This is the American Version:

This is the Canadian Version:

Blog Source: http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/iphone-news/samsungs-super-bowl-ad-mocking-iphone-users-revealed-video/

As you can see, all Samsung did was change the texts at the beginning from American cities to Canadian cities.. and voila!!! I realize this method won’t work in all cases, however, I feel a lot of the American Superbowl commercials could easily have been used in Canada.. all it takes is some creative thinking from the marketers!