No Dancing M&M’s in Canada

The Super Bowl was great.  The game had an exciting conclusion, and the half-time show wasn’t bad, but what I really wanted to see were some dancing M&M’s.

Last night’s game had the biggest TV audience ever with an estimated 111.3 million people tuning in to watch the Giants beat the Patriots.  With numbers that great, it is no wonder that Super Bowl Sunday is recognized by Americans as the largest advertising day of the year, as mentioned by Zane in one of his earlier blog posts.  It is the day when companies display big budget commercials in hopes of positioning themselves in the minds of consumers.  It is the epitome of mass marketing.

What frustrates me, though, is the fact that the majority of these amazing commercials such as the M&M’s commercial above is usually not shown in Canada.  The Globe and Mail suggests that the primary reason for this is that football just does not resonate with Canadians like it does with Americans, thus it may not be worthwhile for companies to make the extra investment, but I disagree with this notion.  Last night, the only two companies which made an effort to do something special for the Super Bowl were Hyundai and Budweiser, and it is no coincidence that those are the only two commercials that I remember.

(Take a look at Michelle’s blog on the Budweiser commercial.)

Indeed, it is true that commercial-lovers like me can watch all the Super Bowl commercials online after the game, but it’s just not the same.  Perhaps next year, on Super Bowl Sunday, I’ll go down to America to watch some commercials, and maybe I’ll watch some football too. 😀