The Beer Fridge made popular by Molson during the 2014 Winter Olympics has apparently returned home to Canada. In Sochi, the door unlocked if the scanner on the face of the refrigerator read a Canadian passport. In this ad, the refrigerator apparently unlocks if the person standing before it sings some portion of O Canada with the correct lyrics in time to recorded music.
I have several questions about this commercial:
- Did the producers think that viewers would be charmed to hear tone-deaf but knowledgeable Canadians groan through parts of their anthem?
- Is Canadians’ national anthem knowledge higher as a percentage of their population than Americans’ knowledge of The Star-Spangled Banner?
- Did the Canadian passport scanner work as advertised, and was the refrigerator left in its public for some time in Sochi?
- Does the lyric detection work as advertised?
- Is this ad solely for Canada?
There are tens of thousands of Americans in the hockey community who know the words to the Canadian National Anthem in English. Heck I can even sing at least part of O Canada phonetically in French. So I take issue with the assertion, “It plays off the uniquely Canadian inability to remember the words to our national anthem.” But I credit Shawn King of The Loop for publicizing the new commercial.
By the way, this year marks the 200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner. I should find time to take my family to Fort McHenry in Baltimore, between now and September 14.