Canadians could finally watch Super Bowl ads but there was little of Canada to be found in those Super Bowl ads. Super Bowl 50 ads were chock full of Canadians but Canadians were scarce this year.
Justin Bieber made the biggest impact by far in a T-Mobile commercial. Drake starred in a T-Mobile commercial last year, so the company is consistent. Bieber leads the commercial in a celebration of touchdown dances. The ad shows Bieber at his best as a "celebration expert" going through the history of touchdown celebrations. New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (who was injured and couldn't play in Super Bowl LI) and former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens are also featured in the ad. #UnlimitedMoves allows Bieber to show off his own dance moves.
Not true to form of a lot of Super Bowl ads, the content correlated to the product. This ad was well above average. Our main criticism would be for the company since the Kristen Schaal ads with the 50 Shades of Grey parody that ran later in the game were more interesting in lots of ways and its angle took away from the message in the Bieber ad. Competition is fierce in Super Bowl ads without trying to compete with yourself.
Canadians can watch Super Bowl LI ads but not without U.S. pressure
Canada has strong impact on Super Bowl 50 ads
Hulu ran a couple of promos for its adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale, originally written by Margaret Atwood.
We saw a promo for the Baywatch film starring Canadian citizen Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Johnson's father was Canadian; the younger Johnson was on the Calgary Stampeders practice roster as a linebacker in 1995 but was cut two months into the season.
When the KFC gold commercial came on, I thought I spotted another Canadian. I thought the new "Colonel" was Kiefer Sutherland. Turns out I was fooled by a Billy Zane impression done by Billy Zane. Norm Macdonald was the first, and perhaps only Canadian, to play Colonel Sanders.
Canadians had their choice of Super Bowl LI feeds: CTV, CTV Two, and TSN for Canadian TV ads and Fox for U.S. ads. Based on my Twitter feed, a number of people got responses that they were too late when sending in a text for the contest designed to bribe, er, reward Canadians for watching a Bell Media property.
We are very curious about how well the ratings went in Canada. Those who watch the Fox feeds in Canada won't be measured on either side of the border. But to show a contrast, CTV and RDS drew an average of 8.3 million with 18.2 million unique viewers tuning in at some point. The high mark was 2015 with a 9.2 million average to CTV and RDS.
The CRTC may reconsider its decision if the ratings took a significant tumble. Once the numbers are in, we will have another story filled with analysis on this topic.
photo and video credit: T-Mobile
Twitter credit: @AlanClough
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