Canadians are skeptical about the effectiveness of a Super Bowl ad that reinforces Ontario’s position as an American ally.
On Sunday, during the 59th Super Bowl where the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Kansas City Chiefs, a nearly one-minute TV advertisement aired about Ontario being a reliable trading partner for the U.S.
The ad, which appears to have been funded by the provincial government, features historical photos of building the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON, shots of the CN tower, and Ontario workers in different industries.
The ad also touted that Ontario specifically is the third largest trading partner with the U.S. and the first export destination for 17 states, adding millions of jobs for Americans.
It appears the ad is funded by the Ontario government and encourages viewers to visit ontario.ca/partner to learn more about its partnership with the U.S. The webpage, which was last updated on Dec. 31, 2024, shows Ontario and U.S. trading statistics as well as an accredited list of all American international trade offices.
Online, Canadians are discussing if the ad is effective in redirecting Trump’s mind about the proposed tariffs and who the ad is actually targeting.
“I worked for the federal government from 1988-2005. This ad has the tone, pace and visuals from something we would have produced in the early 1990s. Not sure who the target market is but it feels a bit underwhelming and long for how folks consume info today,” one Reddit user said.
“Unfortunately the people who understand economics, trade and trade deficits already get how important Canada is to the U.S. Those that don’t won’t be moved,” a Twitter user commented.
Others are worried about how much money was spent on securing an ad right after the halftime show, considering it cost $8 million USD on average for a 30-second Super Bowl ad this year.
“Ontario taxpayers should shudder to think what this Super Bowl commercial just cost us,” public policy platform organization Blueprint for Canada commented on X.”
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Canadians are also wondering if Americans are reacting to the ad as much as they are.
“My friend in Colorado called it an “FTrump” ad….which she thought was hilarious,” one person said on X.
“Don’t Canadian networks get their own commercials?” another X user said.
According to Dr. Selma A. Purac, an assistant professor and undergraduate program chair for the faculty of information and media studies at University of Western Ontario, the large and broad audience the Super Bowl offers was potentially intentional to target an audience of wide-ranging consumers who would likely be impacted by tariffs.
Purac hones in on the opening line of the ad, “for generations,” as a classic advertisement technique to draw upon nostalgia, along with the grainy retro-imagery.
“The ad is a reminder, delivering the message: ‘this relationship has been long-standing; why change things now?’ And the rhetoric reaffirms this: the ad uses words like ally, shared, stable, secure, rely – and, of course, there is the image of the literal bridge between 2 nations, which takes on a symbolic role here. The ad is structured to be like the Ambassador bridge itself: a structural link between nations,” Purac told Now Toronto in an email statement on Monday..
However, Purac finds the most interesting aspect of the ad is that it’s rooted in logic rather than contributing to what appears to be an emotionally-driven political decision.
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