Global Beer Fridge Commercial Essay

In Canada, the First Nations people are the first people who came to Canada first and were the ones who started off as being the various distinct groups in the country. In fact, the name Canada comes from the Iroquois word “Kanata” meaning village. The I am Canadian and Global Beer Fridge commercials by Molson Canadian promote a message of cultural exclusion of the First Nations groups in Canada. Through this essay, the I am Canadian and Global Beer Fridge commercials demonstrate cultural exclusion through the use of their speakers, one representing the Caucasian race and the other with people of multiple ethnicities. Moreover, Molson Canadian attempts to provide through their commercials a positive image of beer, but fail to acknowledge one

of the defining identities of Canada.
The commercials “I am Canadian” and “Global Beer Fridge” both seem to neglect First Nations groups as a whole while trying to convey messages of defining Canadian identity. In the “I am Canadian” commercial, the speaker mentions that there are two languages that are spoken in Canada. Joe the Canadian states, “I speak English and French not American” (Molson). As a matter of fact, the two official languages in Canada are languages that were brought into Canada by the British and French colonizers, and disregarding the fact that the First Nations people were in Canada who spoke many different languages which at the time were considered Canada’s “official languages”. In the “Global Beer Fridge” commercial, there is no evidence of First Nations languages (Cree, Iroquois, Sioux, etc.) being used to open up the beer fridge. For instance, in the “Global Beer Fridge” commercial, the languages range from French “Je suis Canadien” to Spanish “Yo soy Canadiense” (Molson). Similarly, the languages that are spoken in this commercial represent people who have immigrated to Canada in hopes of a better lifestyle, but fail to acknowledge the people who were the first settlers who spoke many languages long before people of other cultures and even the colonizers arrived. Thus, it seems very ironic to speak of Canadians and Canadian identity without mentioning the first people in this country.
With regards to multicultural representation in Molson Canadian’s branding and commercials, the Global Beer Fridge commercial portrays cultural inclusion more than the other however, both commercials still portray Molson Canadian’s bias towards ‘true Canadian identity.’ In the ‘I am Canadian’ commercial, the first bias prevalent is that the speaker in the video is a white male who mentions the line, “Diversity, not assimilation”. The video is trying to promote a message of diversity, but there is only person in the video who is a white male; this shows the implicit message that Canada’s population is a dominant white majority compared to a nation of people of all different cultures. Whereas, in the Global Beer Fridge commercial, there are many multicultural aspects using different people from different cultures to speak their languages when opening the beer fridge. However, the multicultural aspect in the Global Beer Fridge is limited in many aspects. First, the group of men putting down the fridge in the beginning of the video are white and the first two languages spoken are English and French, which are the two official languages of Canada. The second reason demonstrating the multicultural aspect is limited in this commercial is that the group of people from different cultures are prompted to speak their languages by saying the sole line “I am Canadian”. This limits the multicultural aspect because even though the speakers are speaking their languages, they are expected to implement the Canadian terminology forgetting their authentic cultures. Lastly, the people from different cultural backgrounds are not representing much of their cultures, as their clothing is very Westernized compared to wearing cultural clothing. In addition, the Global Beer Fridge shows people of many different cultural backgrounds such as Japanese, Spanish, Italian, French, etc. but shows them wearing common-everyday Westernized clothing like a T-shirt and jeans, instead of for example, the Japanese person wearing a kimono or the French person wearing a beret on their head. In summary, although one commercial does attempt to prove more cultural inclusion than the other, the portrayal of multicultural Canadian identity is arguably limited.
In addition, the I am Canadian and Global Beer Fridge commercial neglect First Nations people in terms of the speakers chosen for each video.

In the I am Canadian video, Molson Canadian picked a Caucasian male to discuss the message of Canadian stereotypes. As a matter of fact, it is interesting that Molson Canadian chose someone of this ethnic group to represent their company in this commercial because it serves a purpose to explain that Molson’s target audience is possibly only certain groups of people and is not suited for everyone. On the other hand, the “Global Beer Fridge commercial includes people of all races, but excludes speakers of the first people who were part of the country, the First Nations people. As a matter of fact, Molson Canada is trying to promote through this commercial that they support people of all cultures that seem to make the majority of the nation who are allowed to enjoy the privileges of beer compared to the minority groups who should not be allowed to share the same privileges. Thus, the two commercials I am Canadian and Global Beer Fridge both seem to exclude a dominant group in Canada’s history due to the privileges for the more dominant group in Canada’s

society.
Nevertheless, the I am Canadian and Global Beer Fridge commercials both implement cultural exclusion to a tee both ads prominently omit the Native people of Canada.

Moreover, the two ads omit the cultural inclusion of Native people due to negative instances between alcohol and Aboriginal people. When the English and French colonizers had arrived in Canada, the fur trade began to start with the two groups and as a result of this, alcohol (rum and brandy) was used as a gift in the exchange process (Waldram et al). As a matter of fact, when the Aboriginal people were exposed to alcohol, as a result of bringing alcohol into the nation, the Natives took the form of binge alcohol where they kept on drinking until the alcohol was gone. According to Statistics Canada survey done on Aboriginal peoples in 2012, “For those 12 and older, the rate of heavy drinking (five or more drinks on one occasion at least once a month in the 12 months preceding the survey) was 35% for off-reserve First Nations people, 30% for Métis, and 39% for Inuit, compared with 23% for non-Aboriginal people” (Statistics Canada). On the other hand, the Molson Canadian commercials portray a positive image of beer as it includes people of all different races that are known to enjoy beer for good purposes rather than negative purposes. Thus, Molson Canadian decided to exclude Aboriginal people in their videos as if they promoted the negative stigma about beer then a positive one, then no one would end up buying

their product.
In conclusion, the “I am Canadian” and “Global Beer Fridge” commercials both portray two distinct narratives of cultural exclusion through First Nations people. Molson Canadian is providing the audience with the idea that beer should be a positive experience by mentioning all stereotypes that are a part of Canadian identity, and by showing that Canadian identity is shown through various multicultural ideals. On the other hand, Molson is achieving the opposite of what they set out to do and are allowing discrimination against one of the most important groups that set its foot in Canada, the First Nations. Hence, Molson Canadian is attempting to provide a positive image of beer rather than a negative one by including the fact that there should be no negative experiences with their product, instead it should be a positive one. These two commercials raise important questions of what a ‘Canadian identity’ entails and how multiculturalism fits into such an identity. Canada is a complex nation because it has constantly experienced a form of ethnic and cultural power relations; such diversity, however, has helped shape Canadian society and identity in the face of such struggles.