“Chasing Beaver“, “2 seasons (winter and July)”, and “we stand at bar for thee”

Do any of those word combinations make you think of anything? If you live in Canada, they might make you think of Molson Canadian. Molson had wildly popular ads about 2 years ago. The whole premise was “I AM CANADIAN.” And people loved the ads, especially this one: I am Canadian Rant

Molson and Coors merged or maybe Coors bought Molson. Whatever happened, it looks like the Molson Canadian marketing department became Americanized.

One thing about Canadians is we are sensitive to some stereo types about us and our country. We often joke that Americans think we live in igloos and use dog sleds to get to work. Of course we know Americans don’t really think that, but we like to amuse ourselves by thinking that they have very misinformed perceptions about our country. And this is only fueled by things like Rick Mercer Talking to Americans.

It all probably stems from Canada being north of the most economically and militarily powerful country in the world. We often feel like an after thought to the US and it is perceived we are the quite neighbour to the north that will apologies when we get in the way.

The old Molson Canadian ads struck the right chord with Canadians. Oddly enough it gave us a sense of unity and something to associate with. Which is sad in its own right, but that is another story.

These new ads from Molson, in my opinion, have missed the mark. They perpetuate stereo types I think most Canadians would not like, they butcher our national anthem (We stand at bar for thee v. We stand at guard for thee) and are offensive to some (chasing beavers.) So, Molson, you got it wrong, really wrong.