RANTING BEER AD A RAVE IN CANADA

Anti-American Harangue Taps Nationalist Pride Of Younger Canadians

Toronto -- Annoyed by the depreciation of their dollar, frustrated
that their kids are moving to New York and San Jose, fearful about the
arrival of privatized, ``American-style'' health care and outraged
that a Canadian team hasn't won the Stanley Cup in ages, Canadians are
finally fighting back.

Their weapon? What else, a beer commercial.

It started in movie theaters, migrated to television and now has
become such a cultural phenomenon that the Molson brewery is having
it performed live at sporting events.

Bar patrons now demand that the volume be turned up when the ad comes
on the TV screen so they can shout the words along with the handsome
Nova Scotia actor in the plaid shirt.

High school students reportedly have begun reciting it spontaneously
in corridors between classes.

And when it was performed two weeks ago at the National Hockey League
playoff game between the hometown Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators,
it generated the kind of fist-in-the-air ovation usually reserved for
goals scored in sudden-death.

I SPEAK ENGLISH . . . NOT AMERICAN'

``I'm not a lumberjack or a fur trader. I don't live in an igloo, eat
blubber or own a dogsled,'' says the Canadian Everyman, giving voice
to the widespread annoyance about how little Americans know about
Canada. ``I have a prime minister, not a president. . . . I believe
in peacekeeping, not policing; diversity, not assimilation. I speak
English and French, not American.''

Following that is a little riff about hats and tuques, couches and
chesterfields, and the fact that Canadians pronounce the last letter
in the alphabet ``zed,'' not ``zee.'' There is an ironically
impassioned defense of the beaver as a ``proud and noble animal.''

And then, as the music of ``Pomp and Circumstance'' builds to a climax
and the red-and-white maple leaf flag fills the background, Joe leans
into the microphone and delivers the punch line: ``Canada is the
second-largest landmass, the first nation of hockey and the best part
of North America. My name is Joe and I am Canadian.''

``Joe's Rant'' has now become daily grist for talk radio and newspaper
columns, its vocabulary seeping into theCanadian vernacular. Parodies
are sprouting up everywhere. A special ``I Am Canadian'' Web site
(www.iam.ca/homef.html, then click on box in upper-right corner) set
up by Molson not only provides unlimited free replays but hosts a
well-attended chat room for other ranters to enlarge on what it means
to be Canadian.

``The first time I saw it, I was in the movie theater and got chills
up my spine,'' one correspondent wrote to the Web site. ``And I still
do every time I see it.''

Even those involved in making the ad are taken aback by the reaction,
although they say it's too early to gauge any impact on sales of
Molson Canadian, the country's most popular brew.

``It's incredible. We've never had anything like we're getting on
this. I mean, after all, it's a beer commercial,'' said Paul Thomson,
Molson's manager of corporate communications, describing the deluge of
calls and requests for tapes. ``It just seems to have tapped into a
powerful undercurrent of feeling.''

Actor Jeff Douglas, 28, has become an overnight celebrity for his
performance as Canadian Joe.

``When I was shooting it, I thought people would see it, lift their
beer and say, `Yeah, cool,' '' Douglas said in one of the dozens of
interviews he has done in recent weeks. ``I didn't think people would
be writing letters to the editor saying I should be enlisted to help
with the national unity crisis.''

In some respects, what is so remarkable about the reaction to the ad
is that it is so un-Canadian. Ever since they fled the American
colonies to support their king, English-speaking Canadians have
shunned the kind of flag-waving, chest-thumping, We're-The-Best-At-Everything
nationalism practiced to the south. Along with gun control and
national health care, a studied anti-jingoism has been a central
feature of the moral superiority that Canadians feel toward the United
States.

But in conducting research for the campaign, the Toronto advertising
firm of Bensimon, Byrne D'Arcy discovered that younger Canadians --
the target audience for beer ads -- have a different view.

``When we talked with them, we were surprised to see that not only
were they very proud to be Canadians, but they were also more willing
to shout it from the rooftops than stereotypical polite, reserved
Canadians of earlier generations,'' said Jack Bensimon, one of the
agency's partners.

APPEAL TO ANTI-AMERICANISM

Over the past week, there has been considerable debate about whether
the ad is simply a lively expression of Canadian national pride or a
not-so-subtle appeal to anti-Americanism.

In reality, there may be very little difference between the two.
Canadians and Americans are alike in so many ways, and the United
States is such a looming presence in Canadian life, that virtually the
only way Canadians have to define their identity is to highlight
whatever is un- American about themselves.

``What the ad reflects is the narcissism of small differences,'' said
Michael Adams, a Toronto pollster whose book on Canadian culture was
titled ``Sex in the Snow.'' ``It demonstrates the abiding ambivalence
we have to our big brother across the border.''

In this case, making a little anti- American mischief comes at very
little cost -- Molson is running the ad only in Canada. But that
didn't stop Jeffrey Simpson, the sharp-tongued political columnist
for Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper, from asking Canadians how much
good humor they would have if Budweiser tried to sell beer in the
United States by stirring up anti-Canadian sentiments.

``Then again,'' sighed Simpson, ``it would never even occur to an
American ad agency to bother.''

`JOE'S RANT'

``I'm not a lumberjack or a fur trader. I don't live in an igloo, eat
blubber or own a dogsled.

``I don't know Jimmy, Suzie or Sally from Canada, although I'm certain
they're very nice.

``I have a prime minister, not a president.

``I speak English and French, not American.

``And I pronounce it `about,' not `a-boot.'

``I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack.

``I believe in peacekeeping, not policing; diversity, not
assimilation.

``And that the beaver is a proud and noble animal.

``A tuque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch.

``And it's pronounced zed. OK? Not zee. Zed.

``Canada is the second-largest land mass, the first nation of hockey
and the best part of North America.

``My name is Joe, and I am Canadian.''