The NHL Center Ice free preview has come and gone once again. There will be another free preview come the last week of the season in early April.
As regular readers know, one of the joys of NHL Center Ice is getting Canadian commercials (yes, I am geeky). There were two Tim Hortons ads, neither of them for donuts, for the Caramel Cafe Mocha/Caramel Chocolate Muffin as well as the house moving theme for the breakfast wraps.
Though McDonald's was born and bred in the USA, its reach is worldwide. There were several McD's ads from the Canadian TV outlets, two of which were especially intriguing.
The video above celebrates the buttermilk biscuit sandwiches for breakfast. The ad parodies a sports team's celebration, dumping flour on the manager in slow motion. But the most compelling visual in the story appears at the end. Two of the employees chest-bump — not that unusual, plays to the theme of the ad.
But if you look closer, the two people are a white woman and a black man. If this ad ran in the United States, the cable news channels, Oprah, The View, the CBS version of The View would be up in arms. To my knowledge, Canada has accepted this scenario with less than a shrug.
The other McDonald's ad of note was people visiting McD's with their past selves also enjoying the McDonald's experience. This spoke volumes to what we all know but can't articulate: we are hooked on McD's because we used to be hooked on McD's.
Continuing on the food beat, a suave guy stands in your kitchen with a lot of food in front of him. He complains about the pains of working in this cage known as a "kitchen." His solution is to employ finger cooking by ordering online from Boston Pizza. They serve much more than pizza, which is good because this leads us to the next point.
Food photography is designed to make a food look so good, you can't resist it. And you realize that the food looks better on TV than the food you will get in real life. But the Canadian pizza commercials I saw had gross looking pizzas, and by American standards, were way expensive.
Pizza ads: pizzas don't look that good, and are extremely expensive by U.S. standards: Panago had a 12" pizza for $12. Pizza Pizza offered any size pizza with 2 toppings, 3 cans of Coke for $12.99 and 2-for-1 Cineplex tickets. Of course, food in Canada is more expensive than in the States, and I'm not the best expert on pizza.
The opposite of those pizza ads would be the beauty of Newfoundland and Labrador. I saw a 30-second version of the video above, beautiful scenery carefully selected to avoid the 8 months (just kidding, maybe) of winter. The province plays up its time issue: "When you're always a half hour ahead, you never feel the need to catch up."
Newfoundland and Labrador are 30 minutes ahead of Atlantic time (think rest of the Maritime provinces).
Canadian ads also teach us things. This ad from the insurance company ICBC talks about getting into accidents on the other side of the border. Would make me find out if the opposite is true, next time I am driving in Canada.
---
The other highlights:
-- Danacol w/plant sterols showed us a guy on a treadmill in a research lab, noting that his reaction is laid-back when he sees broccoli vs. running at full speed for hot dogs.
-- There was the Cialis people that you could show to your kids because there wasn't an obvious correlation. People keep asking an older man what's new.
-- Two things you won't see advertised on U.S. television: banks promoting savings and travel to Cuba. I felt like Canadian banks wanted my money and I don't even live there. This doesn't even count the BMO Lifetime Cash flow ads that help people save for retirement.
-- Molson Canadian took time out from selling beer to spotlight Canadian cities and their homegrown hockey players (e.g., Halifax).
-- We'll end on two confusing Canadian food and drink commercials. Kit Kat Chunky had an ad with auto crash dummies, but there was nothing in the description that would make you think the product was actually chunky. And Nabob coffee showed how they use the best of the best of the best beans, and then said they only use 60% for their coffee. But they want to get to 100%. Not sure how that works.
---
One final note: After careful deliberation, I purchased NHL Center Ice for the rest of the season, playoffs included. Given the financials, the $79.95 price is a bit high for my budget. However, you can break that down into 2, 3, or 4 payments. Not having the annoying CI ads to begin a commercial break is almost worth the price.
Would be better to have seen March's HD schedule before ordering, but this is an experiment. We will see more Canadian ads in the next few weeks, and will try to keep track of some of them before the next free preview in April.
Just want to ask how that McD ad would be offensive or make people get up in arms?
Also Boston Pizza is really expensive (and imo the pizza isn't that great).
Also I love that kitkat commercial, somehow it hasn't managed to get old for me.
Come visit Newfoundland, it really is beautiful. Even in the winter, which for some reason you will never see ads for.
Posted by: SelahBeth | February 26, 2011 at 10:54 PM
Just to be clear, I find no offense with the McDonald's ad. I think Canadians are more tolerant of situations that Americans aren't.
Some Americans freak out over interactions between black men and white women. Sad, but true.
Just my impression that this spot would never run in the United States. Would like to be proven wrong.
Would love to visit Newfoundland and Labrador someday.
Posted by: Chad | February 26, 2011 at 11:52 PM
I am Canadian.
Only after you mentioned it in your article did I even pay attention to the racial juxtaposition there. I saw the chest-bump, and truly, I think your eye is drawn there, but only because a girl is involved (and I'm not a girl).
That McDonald's commercial is so awesome.
I HATE WITH A PASSION the stupid Boston Pizza finger cooking commercial! Bill is smarmy and annoying. He's the opposite of the Old Spice guy... he's the guy, "You don't want your man to smell, look, or cook like."
Posted by: Shawn Chong | March 19, 2011 at 04:11 AM
The McDonalds ad is subtle. I just figured that it wouldn't play for an American audience, especially in the South. Perhaps things are different i.e., better.
I do agree about the Boston Pizza guy. He is supposed to be obnoxious on some level, maybe he does his job too well.
Posted by: Chad | March 19, 2011 at 08:36 AM