I am so fucking sick of those hideous “I am Canadian” beer campaigns. “The Rant” was bad, to be sure, but this new ad with the fake historical footage of people signing a crappy, tuneless song about being Canadian makes me lunge for the remote faster than an episode of “The View”.
The one that ran a lot a few months ago with the guy with the fake Scottish-y accent was embarassing, but this is a new low. I think I’d rather have the scantily clad chick beer ads of years ago than this horrible shite.
And to all of those people who respond to the likes of “The Rant” with cries of “Yeah! that’s so true!” - You fuck off, too, please. You are the fuckwits responsible for Molson to keep churning out this crap.
My son was walking around the house the other day singing “I am proud to be Canadian” and I had no idea where he picked this up. He never walks around the house singing Oh Canada.
I asked him thinking it was something he learned at school but he told me he heard it on T.V.
Then I saw the ad.
<sarcasm>
Where do those fuckwits at Molson get off teaching my son to repeat such filth? Proud to be Canadian? Isn’t there something in our constitution that says we can be as proud as we want as long as we’re not too loud? We are after all, Canadians. Polite, quiet, never seen doing any flag waving or any other over patriotic nonsense?
</sarcasm>
He can sing it all he wants.
I am going to have to explain to him why I get a tear in my eye whenever I see Henderson score…
I’m not a Canadian (I do play one on television, however ) so I thought I’d throw in some thoughts from south of the border. The first time I heard about the Rant was in a Time or Newsweek (can’t remember exactly which) article that I read in the doctor’s waiting room (which meant it was a good 3 or 4 months old at the time ). I later went and saw it on adcritic.com. I basically remember thinking “do Canadians really think that we’re that big a bunch of assholes?” I’d like to think that I’m rather world-refined enough not to ask if Canadians live in igloos or if you know Tom and Sally from Canada, although I’ll admit I’m guilty of the abOOT thing ;). In thinking about it though, I realized that American pop culture has pretty much taken over the world, and the only way that Canadians can assert their nationalism is to somewhat emphasize the rather unique elements of their culture (and put down somewhat odd American perceptions of it!). All in all, I enjoyed the commercial and I personally was not offended by it (I still drink Molson Canadian…much better than Golden!!!)
I agree with matt and it’s not necessarily patriotism that’s annoying, it’s when it is used to hawk some product that I dislike. Of course patriotism about minor lame-ass differences is pretty stupid.
I remember when Eatons first got into trouble and they tried appealin to their Canadian history to get people to buy their over-priced products. It was at that moment that I started rooting for their demise. These idiot Eaton kids who drove the company into the ground by blowing their inherited money and totally losing touch with the public and its needs now expect us to buy their ridiculously expensive stuff just because they are Canadian multi-millionaires instead of American multi-millionaires? (This is not to say I don’t feel sorry for the employees who lost their jobs).
And the Henderson goal? As far as I’m concerned, Canada cheated to win that series when they sent the goon to break the Soviet player’s leg.
I don’t like the fact that the most patriotic thing I’ve seen in a long time is an ad for beer either, but I think the ad really did strike a chord with a lot of Canadians. We have a strong sense of patriotism in Canada, although people don’t seem to realize this (even Canadians) because we don’t shout about it.(Anyone else get all teary-eyed when they hear O Canada played at any medal ceremony?) I give the creators of this ad full credit for figuring out what a lot of Canadians wanted to hear and say before we knew it ourselves.
Those ads are SO CUTE!!! It’s like getting barked at by a Yorkshire Terrier–even if it manages to bite you, it’s not like it’s going to HURT or anything!
Wait…you mean that it’s NOT perpetual winter in Canada??
Hmm…maybe I should wear a parka next time I visit Niagara Falls since it gives me a lot less chance to have to come back with the shirt off my back (hell, I’ve lost so much money at Casino Niagara I should be given hono(u)rary Canadian citizenship!)
Actually I kinda like it. I thought it was catchy… I guess that is what it was supposed to do. I especially I liked old Bill Shatners cameo reprising his role as the Priceline.com guy.
I think it is kinda sad though that the only time some people feel patriotic is after a beer commercial.
I am one of those rare Canucks who has no problem screaming “CANADA ROCKS!” from the rooftops.
I love this country like none other.
I am more than a little ticked that Gretchen called anyone who liked these ads “fuckwits”. Is bernse a fuckwit? Is dropzone a fuckwit? Is featherlou a fuckwit? Is RugbyMan a fuckwit? Am I a fuckwit?
By Gretchen’s definition this seems to be a gathering of fuckwits. Look! There’s a whole bunch of us here.
I eagerly await Miss Gretchen’s heartfelt apology.
Hey, you can’t call me a f*ckwit - you don’t even know me! Wait, that didn’t come out right…
Excellent link, John C.. I’m still giggling over the image of Jean Chretien scraping moose dung off of his boots.
(Oh, BTW, I just saw the latest ad in the series with the singing and stuff; it is pretty lame, but I still like the message of “I Am Canadian”. Say it loud, and say it proud. My best friend even got a little maple leaf tattoo on her shoulder with “I AM” in it.)
Yikes! I guess I should have explained myself a little better. Give me a break, it’s my first pit thread!
It’s not patriotism that I dislike, Hell, I am also totally proud of being Canadian! It’s the lame commercials that I despise. My particular beef with “The Rant” for example, was that it wasn’t so much “My country is great!” as it was “My country is better than yours, you dumb ass American!”. It relied on a bunch of tired stereotypes about Americans not knowing anything about Canada, but come on, we’ve all met loads of Canadians who are pretty clueless about the U.S.
The current song one makes me cringe. I wish I could express it a little more eloquently, but there’s something about it that makes me squirm.
Posted by Feynn:
I eagerly await Miss Gretchen’s heartfelt apology.
Keep waiting! I won’t apologize, just try to explain myself a little better!
) so I thought I’d throw in some thoughts from south of the border. The first time I heard about the Rant was in a Time or Newsweek (can’t remember exactly which) article that I read in the doctor’s waiting room (which meant it was a good 3 or 4 months old at the time 
