Your TV choice this past weekend: 4 CBC games and no Super Bowl ads OR no CBC games and all the Super Bowl ads you can muster.
The best scenario is to live along the border on the U.S. side, get the CBC feed and still watch the Super Bowl ads. Canadians get the hockey, but they are primarily shut out of Super Bowl ads.
The CRTC makes Canadian cable systems cover U.S. ads and Canadian ads are run in their place. So if you are on cable or satellite in Canada, whether you tune in NBC or CTV, you get the Canadian feed. Yes, many Canadians and Americans can go on YouTube and elsewhere and see some of the Super Bowl ads. (Full disclosure: My day job is running an ad in the Super Bowl.)
The best way for Canadian viewers to see the Super Bowl ads is to access a NBC over-the-air (OTA) signal. The CRTC can't do anything about OTA signals, though the digital conversion reduces the range of OTA signals. While Canadians receive the U.S. networks via cable, very few of them can get that OTA signal. In the major cities, Toronto has a pretty good shot at WGRZ/Buffalo Channel 2 and Windsor, Ontario is ideal to get WDIV/Detroit Channel 4.
In past years, Canadians might get the ads depending on their location, cable or satellite outlet, and whether all the network feeds were covered. This is a hit-and-miss, and we hope you found success.
Now, many companies run their Super Bowl ads well after the game. Though if it's a sim sub, the U.S. commercials are blocked. And the really cool ads — think Seinfeld and the Soup Nazi one — don't run that much after the Big Game.
This year, Labatt's, which distributes Budweiser beer in Canada, created a Super Bowl ad that was only shown in Canada, not in the United States. As a public service, you can see it in the video above.
For last year's Super Bowl, Hyundai Elantra paid extra to air the U.S. ad in Canada. This year, Hyundai created a separate Canadian ad for the Super Bowl.
Samsung aired its U.S. Super Bowl commercial in the Canadian telecast, continuing its quest to mock Apple customers. (Full disclosure: I just bought a Samsung phone.)
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You can't mention Super Bowl ads without noting that Canadian acting legend William Shatner's Priceline character was killed off by Priceline. While Shatner may be replaced as the company's spokesperson, you have to imagine that at some point, perhaps a future Super Bowl ad, Shatner's character will reappear, just like characters do in many soap operas.
Shatner's character goes out in a blaze of glory as he saves a bus teetering on the edge of a bridge, and then falls off that bridge.
Canada's best-known NBA basketball player Steve Nash appeared in a Bridgestone Tires ad. And Montréal's Moment Factory and Cirque du Soleil worked on the multimedia production of Madonna's halftime show.
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Being Super Bowl week, the Globe and Mail had some nice Canadian tie-ins to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is quite popular in Canada from a fan's perspective — third-highest TV audience in 2011 — even with very little actual connection.
New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes was in his 2nd Super Bowl, and had also played in the CFL with the Ottawa Renegades in 2002-2003.
The newspaper also had a bit of fun with what would have happened if New England Patriots QB Tom Brady went with baseball as he was drafted by the Montréal Expos.
The Expos drafted him in the 18th round in 1995, a pick so late because the assumption was that Brady would pick football and go to the University of Michigan.
The Expos were snake-bit in a lot of ways, so you would like to think that a few of these moments would have made a difference.
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