4 Canadian ads that should have aired during the Super Bowl
the only fumble worse than Canadian advertisers came from Mahomes at the 2025 Super Bowl
Maybe it’s because Kendrick unlocked the hater in me with his Toronto-man-fuelled-beef halftime performance…
Or maybe it’s because we’re finally in a long-awaited era of Canadians loudly vocalizing their desire for Canadian content…
But this year, Canadian Super Bowl ads reached new levels of uncool.
You know it’s bad when Canadian internet unites against Tim Hortons, but tbh, anyone who dares broadcast a Stan Rogers Travis-and-Taylor rewrite would receive that feedback.
What stings more? American advertisers schooled us with our own talent.
Schitts Creek took over America airwaves with Eugene and Sarah Levy showing up for Little Ceasers, Dan Levy for Homes.com, Catherine O’Hara for Michelob Ultra, and Annie Murphy winning social media over before the game with a new Sparkling Ice campaign.
These ads didn’t air in the Canadian broadcast (booooo) — but that’s not what brings me to Kendrick levels of hater:
(BTW: If you want to see all the American ads we missed on Canadian airwaves, Ad Week has you covered).
The resurgence of Canadians craving Canadian media is not a surprise. Rogers’ scandalous smoking gun of a commercial featuring Boston-nice-guy John Krasinski plowed the road clear for other companies to follow: Canadians want to see Canadians tell Canadian stories in our ads.
(BTW: Rogers did air an ad last night featuring Keanu Reeves, so clearly they received the feedback loud and clear).
Because I have to do everything around here, here are 4 ads I fully anticipated seeing on Canadian airwaves last night:
“Canadian Beef is Better”
Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s beef was the biggest story of May 2024, and one of the biggest pop culture moments of the year. Kendrick was announced as the Super Bowl halftime performer in September.
Even with all that time and the door wide open, not one ad poked fun at the beef and how Canadians love a good scrap.
Here’s how I thought we would see it:
Fast food zeroing in on the “Canadian Beef” of it all with special Super Bowl hamburger promotions
Hiring famous Canadian rivals to poke fun at their rivalries on-camera — we almost got this from McDonalds with their ongoing Matthews vs McDavid campaign, but it’s actually a reference to the 1990’s Showdown campaign, versus a campaign actually pointed at the Kendrick versus Drake debate
“Celine Dion is Back and So Is…”
Every move Celine Dion made in 2024 made international headlines — from her phenomenal I Am: Celine Dion documentary for Prime Video to opening the Olympics on the Eiffel Tower. Her Sunday Night Football spot was so iconic it got its own SNL impression from now Oscar-nominee Ariana Grande.
Maybe her contract with the NFL locked her out of doing additional spots this year — but if we’re living in a world where that’s not true, here’s how I thought we would see her integrated into ads for the big game:
Launching a new iteration of her L’Oreal campaign that launched at Paris Fashion Week
Joining Michael Bublé in a bubly ad (the version they did air felt the opposite of their brand promise: flat)
[Insert Whatever Idea Jared Keeso Wants Here]
While we did see ad spots for the new season of Shoresy, Jared Keeso should have been paid to create whatever advertisement he wanted. While I could never pretend to know what’s happening inside his brain, here’s how I thought we might see it:
Shoresy spoof content — we saw lots of this kind of actor-in-genre references from American advertisers — Glen Powell as the action-movie-star-Goldilocks for Ram Trucks, Barry Keoghan returning to his The Banshees of Inisherin for Squarespace.
Bringing back the classic “How to Motivate Your Players” sketch from Letterkenny
London, ON to the World
The Brown brothers’ journey from London, ON to the NFL is the kind of inspirational story a writer’s room dreams of creating. Sydney’s heartbreaking ACL-injury turned to Super Bowl comeback (turned win!) was begging for a “started from London, now we’re here” inspirational spot.
Was no Toronto agency willing to make the two-odd-hour drive to shoot at a London rink, football field, or track?
I refuse to live in a world where Sydney and Chase Brown weren’t offered a joint campaign. But even if they were unavailable or in non-competes with other brand partners, here’s how I thought we would see it:
In an allusion-based ads evoking a hero’s journey and hometown pride without specifically using the Brown twins’ names or likeness — a staple in sports media that we often see during the Olympics and NHL playoffs
In a breakfast-cereal-style “fuelling the next generation of Canadian athletes” spot featuring London, ON youth
Besides these four concepts, I was also surprised by the lack of Canadian celebrity cameos given Canada’s dominating presence in pop culture last year:
Martin Short and Gabriel LaBelle are all over the awards season circuit for their respective small and silver screen performances — but no endorsements hitting Canadian televisions last night felt like a big miss
Tate McRae and Lauren Spencer Smith are dominating confessional pop music — and while Tate just launched a new campaign winning social for Gen Z, either could have been a hit with Valentine’s-seasonal spots
Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE is one of the most popular franchises in the world — so iconic that there’s endless room to play with parodying the genre
Nostalgic Canadian content is hitting harder than ever on socials — any 2000s Canadian television star or host could have knocked it out of the park for millennial demographics
Did you see ads that fuelled your hater spirit, or ads you loved, during the big game? Let me know in the comments.
Until next time,
ProducerLiz XO