Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect this year's Super Bowl ratings on CTV, CTV Two, and TSN.
Super Bowl advertisers have certainly relied on Canadians to sell their products. So in the second year where Canadians can watch Super Bowl ads on their TVs, we only have a single Canadian as a spokesperson. Squarespace had Keanu Reeves as its 2018 spokesperson.
Reeves uses Squarespace for his Arch Motorcycle company Web site. The company says Reeves did his own stunt on the motorcycle.
In 2017, Justin Bieber was the sole Canadian used in a Super Bowl ad, this one for T-Mobile commercial.
Canada makes little presence in Super Bowl LI ads
Canadians can watch Super Bowl LI ads but not without U.S. pressure
The big year for a Canadian presence was 2016 for Super Bowl 50.
Canada has strong impact on Super Bowl 50 ads
- Ryan Reynolds in Ryanville for the Hyundai Elantra
- Seth Rogen for Bud Light along with Amy Schumer where they recruit people for the non-partisan Bud Light Party
- Drake poking at his Hotline Bling video for T-Mobile
- Drake for Air Jordans
- Norm Macdonald as Colonel Harlan Sanders for Kentucky Fried Chicken
- John A. Macdonald via the Canadian $10 bill for PayPal
- Eugene Levy for Snickers
This feels like revenge since Canadians can watch the Super Bowl ads as a time to stop hiring Canadians to promote the American products.
Like last year, there was a commercial for a Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson movie. In 2017, the movie was Baywatch while this year, Skyscraper is the movie. Baywatch looked a lot better than this movie. As we noted, Johnson's father was Canadian; the younger Johnson was on the Calgary Stampeders practice roster as a linebacker in 1995 but didn't last long.
Bell Media Super Bowl LI ratings drop 39% from last year
Bell Media lost 2.85 million viewers between 2016 and 2017. In 2017, Bell Media expanded the game to be shown on CTV, CTV Two, and TSN.
Like last year, Bell Media offered cash and prizes to entice Canadians to watch their feed instead of a NBC TV affiliate. Russell Peters was added to the showcase effort this year.
In 2016, the viewership was 7.32 million. In 2017, the numbers were 4.47 million. When we get numbers for 2018, we will update this story.
The Canadian TV ratings for Super Bowl LII were comparable to last year's numbers. Super Bowl LII drew 4.45 million Canadians, down from 4.47 million for Super Bowl LI in 2017. The slight drop mirrored the U.S. ratings with a 7% drop from 111.3 million in 2017 to 103.4 million viewers in 2018.
At least this year, there wasn't a screwup with how the contest worked.
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In the only other Super Bowl played in Minneapolis, Mark Rypien became the only Canadian to win the Super Bowl MVP award in Super Bowl XXVI at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome as Washington defeated Buffalo 37–24 on January 26, 1992.
video credit: YouTube/Squarespace
photo credit: Squarespace
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