As It Happens5:48The ‘I am Canadian’ advert is again in a giant method. Its star has blended emotions
Earlier than he was a staple of CBC Radio, Jeff Douglas was finest referred to as Joe from Molson’s wildly in style “I am Canadian!” tv commercials.
Now, 25 years later — amid a looming commerce battle with the U.S., threats to Canada’s nationwide sovereignty and a swelling of Canadian patriotism — the beer advert is getting a second life as a social media phenomenon.
Douglas first seen the advert’s burgeoning resurgence a pair weeks in the past.
“Some people were tagging me on socials directly and, you know, saying, ‘Jeff, it’s time to do these again,’ or ‘Hey, we need these back,’” Douglas advised As It Occurs host Nil Koksal.
Since then, it’s blown up, particularly on TikTok, the place Canadian customers are sharing clips from the industrial, or utilizing the audio to report their very own performances of its patriotic script.
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Throwback: When this ‘I Am Canadian’ advert stirred nationwide delight in 2000
Satirically, Molson merged with an American firm a number of years after the advert was launched in 2000. However that’s not stopping Canadians from sharing the sentiment behind it at this time as a commerce battle looms.
At present, Douglas is finest recognized on the East Coast because the host of CBC Radio’s Mainstreet Nova Scotia. Earlier than that, he spent practically a decade on the nationwide airwaves as co-host of As It Occurs alongside Carol Off.
However in 2000, he was the flannel-wearing “Joe Canada,” standing alone on a stage, refuting Canadian stereotypes and boasting with patriotic fervour over swelling music, earlier than shouting the slogan, “I am Canadian!” to rousing applause.
Listening to his youthful self boast about toques, beavers and chesterfields all these years later brings up “complex” emotions, Douglas says.
On the one hand, the actor-turned-broadcaster has “fond memories” of the industrial, and is glad to see it resonating with folks in troublesome occasions. On the similar time, he says he’s discovered much more in current a long time concerning the darker facets of Canadian historical past, and worries concerning the nation sliding again into the “blind patriotism” of the early aughts.
“I feel that people are needing to feel that love,” he stated. “I just hope that they don’t forget that there is still a lot of work to do.”
A advertising and marketing success
The advert, written by Glen Hunt and titled The Rant, was an enormous success when it launched.
Antonia Mantonakis, a professor of selling and client psychology at Brock College in St. Catharines, Ont., remembers finding out it in college.
“A lot of business professors were teaching that case, and in talking about the Canadian identity and that influence. But then it seemed to kind of lose its steam and become dated,” Mantonakis advised CBC.
Now, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens tariffs on Canadian items and suggests Canada change into the 51st state, Canadians are immediately booing the U.S. anthem at sporting occasions and boycotting American items.
A current Angus Reid ballot discovered that, between December and February, nationwide delight rose throughout the nation by 9 factors, from 58 per cent to 67 per cent.
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The advertising and marketing world, Mantonakis says, has taken discover.
“In the last week or so, every professor, every class, no matter what the topic is, this issue of Canadian identity has come up again and again,” Mantonakis stated.
However The Rant most likely received’t be the identical boon to Molson because it was 25 years in the past, she stated. 5 years after it hit the airways, the once-Canadian firm merged with U.S. brewer Coors.
As a substitute, she suspects its newfound recognition will “contribute to the general likelihood for a consumer to be more likely to choose Canadian” merchandise.
Even when the swell of patriotism finally dies down, and the tariffs cease making headlines, she says the client shift that occurs now may have long-lasting impacts.
“You think, well, why haven’t we bought this before? This is great. We’ll definitely have to buy it again,” she stated.
The nice, the unhealthy and ugly
Douglas says the “I am Canadian!” advert struck a chord with younger folks again in its heydey, much like the response it’s getting now.
“It was fun and it was kind of like, you know, biting the thumb at the States and standing up at a point when national pride was already really high,” he stated.
“It was very easy for me to believe in Canada. We weren’t dealing with the totality of what Canada was. And over the past 25 years, we have had to look at that and had to confront it.”
He was about 28 years previous when he starred within the advert, and says he didn’t know a lot then about Canada’s historical past of colonialism, and the violence and compelled assimilation perpetrated in opposition to Indigenous youngsters by the Sixties Scoop and in residential faculties, the final of which closed in 1997.
The advert copy itself consists of strains about not dwelling in an igloo, consuming blubber or proudly owning a canine sled, references to Indigenous folks in Canada’s North.
What’s extra, Douglas says the patriotism that got here so simply to many in 2000 is far tougher to search out for younger folks coming of age throughout the pandemic, the rising value of dwelling and a scarcity of reasonably priced housing.
Douglas interviews Rev. Arla Johnson on CBC Radio’s Mainstreet Nova Scotia. (Brian MacKay/CBC)
Now that the winds are altering, Douglas says he’s cautious, however hopeful.
“I think that people are looking around at their communities, at their neighbours, at their families, and, you know, the people in the provinces and territories and going: No, you know what? Canada is them. That’s who this is, and that’s what I stand for. So I think that that’s where we’re coming back to.”
