Canada vs. USA: Two fans forced to watch each country's worst 2025 NHL playoff ads

New York Times

2 days ago

Every year, there's one article more people ask me about than any other. Which is weird, because it has next to nothing to do with hockey.
That would be this one, of course — the annual 'bad ads' piece, in which two Seans from different countries create an international exchange program for annoying commercials. You know the ones; the kind you see once or twice and maybe aren't too bothered by, right up until you realize that they're going to keep popping up constantly as you try to enjoy the NHL playoffs. That's when the annoyance begins to build. Sometimes, it grows into rage. Or despair. Or whatever that was that 'Tara Tara look at her go' made us feel.
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We first tried this back in 2020, and it's become an annual tradition. This time around, in a year where relations between our two countries have been strained, to put it mildly, it feels more important than ever. After all, we may have our differences. But at least we all know how to pronounce the word 'liberty' and buy a proper cantaloupe. Here we go…
McIndoe: I'm going to lead off with a decision that I suspect will be controversial. Canada, we have to figure out what to do with 'Lay It on the Line.' (Pauses while an entire nation shudders in terror at the mere words.)
For you Americans, 'Lay It on the Line' is, of course, the single ad that's done the most psychic damage to hockey fans up here over the last few months. It's the Rogers spot that's not really selling anything except Canadian hockey exceptionalism, and we all hate it. It's to the point where just the first few seconds trigger a rage response from Canadians.
BUT! I'm not including it as one of my three ads today, for a simple reason: I don't think it's a bad commercial. In fact, on first viewing, it's actually pretty good. The problem up here is that after that first viewing, and the second, and the third, we've been subjected to it roughly a million more times. I swear that there are times when it plays at every ad break. That's what makes it so awful. It's the cumulative effect. And that wouldn't come across in an exercise like this.
So here's my compromise: American viewers, feel free to watch the ad below. Then rewatch it. Then put it on a loop, and after about 48 consecutive hours, check back and let me know what you think.
You'll know it's working when the first drop of blood rolls out of your ear.
Beyond that, I actually got scientific this year, posting a survey on my site for Canadian readers to vote on which ads they wanted to see. And somewhat to my surprise, two ads ran away with the poll. We'll use both, with a personal (non) favorite sandwiched in between, and see where this goes.
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Gentille: Greetings from Team America HQ, where we believe we're in a bit of a transitional season. In 2024, we held the 'What a pro wants' hammer. The year before that, it was some lady with a heart like a truck. We know all about Tara, looking at her go and things of that nature. What I'm saying is that over the years, I'd learned to lean on commercials with earwormy songs. This year, I have no such option.
Time for a different approach. I'm trying to build a contender without a true franchise player here. That worked out for Rob Blake, right? Right?
In terms of the order, we're going in escalating order of obnoxiousness. I've tried a Round 1 haymaker a time or two, but I don't think I have the option this time around. Enjoy a slower build.
Also, that was the first time I saw 'Lay It on the Line.' I get that repetition is a factor here, but if that was really the worst of the Canadian batch this spring, I might have a shot.
McIndoe: I'll lead off with the surprise winner of my reader poll. To be clear, it's not that I don't think this ad is awful, but given that it only ran for about a week, it sure seemed to leave an impression with Canadian viewers. Sean, were you aware that we recently had an election up here?
Gentille: No, but I'm a big fan of them — especially the effect that they have on watching television.
McIndoe: Well then I have good news. We had a federal election, and like every election held anywhere in the world these days, we were warned that it was the most important one ever. And so, with just about a week left in a hard-fought campaign, this was our conservative party's closing message. Nothing held back, no expenses spared, this is what they wanted us to have in mind when we went to the polls:
Feel the electricity!
Gentille: Played big, I assume, with the crucial voting bloc of 'golf dads in quarter-zips who bought their kid a house.' Gotta keep those guys in your pocket if you're the conservative party.
Also, I think this is the first instance of 'Simpsons did it' in the history of our little exercise here.
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McIndoe: It might be! Also, for those of you who don't follow Canadian politics, I should point out that neither of those old golfer guys was running for prime minister. Or anything at all. They're actors. Like, they do this for a living. They auditioned for this, and the people who wanted to run our country said 'Those are our guys.'
Gentille: I love starting conversations with my friends by reminding them of their kids' relationship to them. 'Ohhh, my son David. My mailman's name is David, too. Thanks for clarifying. Anyway, I had enough money to buy him a house. Things are going terribly for me.'
McIndoe: In a shocking development, the party that ran this ad did not win. Hey, if I wanted to watch some sad old guys play golf, I'd just wait for the second round of a Leafs playoff run, am I right?
Gentille: Yeah, or you could just hang around any Congressional country club outside of D.C. and wait for the clown car to roll up. Bunch of clowns.
McIndoe: 'I think it speaks directly to a demographic that the Conservatives need to win in order to win this election,' according to this CBC article. That demographic: You guessed it, clowns.
What's your first ad?
Gentille: After I made my picks, I re-read last year's post and was reminded that we'd speculated, based on a Progressive ad featuring a ghost who sounded like Will Ferrell, that we were approaching a point where the actual Will Ferrell would show up in our nasty little collection. Lo and behold …
Again: when I put that one in the leadoff spot, I'd completely forgotten about what we said last spring.
McIndoe: Oh, so this is what 'pay your own way' means. It sucks!
Gentille: It was the second one of these PayPal ads for Ferrell, too. Weird, because sequels have typically worked out for him.
McIndoe: You see, the little kid tells him he's not cool, so that means they know he's not cool, which when you think about it means he kind of is cool, right? That's how irony works, right? I'm pretty sure that's it.
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Gentille: Irony, at least as I understand it, is when a bazillionaire celebrity stumps for a financial service that allows you to pay for relatively inexpensive stuff in installments. Unless he actually needs it.
McIndoe: Too bad about the humidity taking out his curls. If he needs any tips on keeping his hair dry, he could always reach out to Mitch Marner.
Gentille: It gets warm in Raleigh.
McIndoe: Next time we hang out, I'm definitely kicking off the good times with a 'Swans, flock up!' That catchphrase is definitely going to go viral, as the kids say.
Gentille: I am simply begging Will Ferrell to do something funny. It's been long enough. Let's move on before I get any sadder.
McIndoe: Good idea. Since you countered my friendly Canadian golfers with some genuine Hollywood star power, I know what I must do…
McIndoe: When it's time to appeal to Canadians and you've got the budget for a legitimate if vaguely non-threatening movie star, there's only way name you turn to: Ryan Reynolds. But when you find out he's already doing weird scrambled egg ads for Tim Hortons, your next best choice is Keanu Reeves.
Gentille: I have no problem with this one. He's a famously chill and likable dude, he's not doing anything particularly annoying in the commercial and he seems to have found yet another way to make the Dogstar guys some money.
McIndoe: Oh, are those the guys from his band? I kind of like that. But I have to disagree on him not being annoying here, because the implication is that he's left an entire work meeting on hold just so he can go play guitar with his friends. That's big-league jerk behaviour, no?
Gentille: Did you forget that I did that during the Zoom where they told us that they were putting the podcast on YouTube?
McIndoe: No. That's why I chose this ad. Maybe time for some self-reflection, Sean.
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Gentille: The only issue I might have here is that 'Keanu Reeves loves the internet' seems like a faulty premise, based on basically everything we've ever heard about him.
McIndoe: I'm not sure I can fully articulate why, but the 'crash through the window' part really bothers me. It's a classic 'super-obvious idea that we've all already thought of and rejected, but now that the boss said it we have to pretend it's brilliant' moment. Kind of like when Terry Pegula suggests they sign Taylor Hall.
Gentille: 'What if I crash through the window?'
'Yeah. I mean this is … yeah.'
McIndoe: I will say this – I appreciate the attention to detail of him painting a wolf, then having that turn out to be his Fall Guys skin. I'm a 'horse's head and boxer shorts' bean myself, but to each his own.
Gentille: I can tell we're starting to cook, because Sean just brought up the finer points of a video game that I don't play. Folks, it happens more than you'd think.
McIndoe: (miscellaneous Balatro reference)
Gentille: Alright, here's one that definitely sucks for reasons both obvious and subtle.
McIndoe: OK, so… how can I put this… um, what the hell?
Gentille: It's annoying prima facie because 'bibberty' is an annoying word, the baby is annoying and the guy is annoying. That should be clear to even someone watching it for the first time.
What takes this thing into overdrive, though, is that there is LORE involved. Dude starred in a Liberty Mutual commercial a few years back as a 'struggling actor' who was flubbing all his lines. That's the big reveal. He dramatically pulls down the newspaper and everything — he, a guy who was in one of 10,000 simultaneously running insurance company ads from a half-decade ago.
McIndoe: What was the reaction in the Gentille living room when that newspaper came down? I'm guessing it was a 'Stone Cold in 1999' level pop.
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Gentille: Crashed through the window like Keanu, brother. 'THERE HE IS! IT'S HIM!' Insurance commercial lore is something I've whined about here before, too. We see it with the Progressive ads starring 'Flo.' Those have been running so long, and Progressive has such a warped idea of the space they occupy in American life, that she has a family and friends and co-workers now. We are expected to enjoy them, too.
Also, I rewatched the original in prep for this. 'Liberty' is the only word Mr. 'Struggling Actor' doesn't flub. Continuity issues on top of quality issues. What a disgrace.
McIndoe: Infuriating. OK, let's take it home…
McIndoe: I'll be honest, I didn't really see this one coming as far as bad ad difference-makers. When it first debuted, it felt like a run-of-the-mill annoying commercial. But within a few days, it had emerged as the national consensus pick, and it never surrendered that lead.
Sean, I give you: An old man who has strong feelings about a cantaloupe.
Gentille: …I think this one is fine.
McIndoe: Sean.
Gentille: Yeah, man. I think the line deliveries are pretty good. I think soundtracking it with a string version of 'I Want It That Way' kind of works. There are probably funnier things she could be buying than a cantaloupe, but … I dunno. At minimum, I don't see how it would get that much worse even with repetition.
McIndoe: I'm stunned. First of all, you're overlooking the deeply weird (presumably family) dynamic here, where she's clearly so beaten down from his constant nit-picking that she just pretends to go along with every weird thing he says.
Gentille: No, I get it, and … I think that's kind of funny.
McIndoe: Also, can we normalize not expecting the minimum-wage workers we hire to do our grocery shopping to engage in bizarre rituals with our produce? If I got a lecture about cantaloupe strategy from a customer, I can't tell you what I'd be doing to that melon, but it wouldn't be knocking on it.
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Gentille: That's the only issue I have with it. Able-bodied people should minimize how much they use apps like Instacart and DoorDash and whatever else, and in the instances that they can't-slash-won't, they should tip well and avoid bizarre requests.
McIndoe: You know what else sounds like nobody's home when you knock on it? The door to this old man's house, because he's a jerk.
Gentille: Maybe this one was, in fact, bad. Alright, I'm finishing up with one that's a lock to bother you.
McIndoe: Oh wow. Yeah, I'm mad now.
Gentille: Congrats to Jennifer Coolidge who, I'm pretty sure, is our first repeat honoree. Last year, she was harassing customer service employees. This year, she's harassing Wayne Gretzky. We should hang a jersey that she never wore from the rafters of Bad Commercial Arena.
McIndoe: I'm sure I'm not the first one to point this out, but the phrasing of 'accepted into the Hall of Fame' makes my eye twitch.
Gentille: You're not. A truly pathetic, unnatural turn of phrase that they crowbarred in solely to set up an 'accepted everywhere' reference. We love it!
I will say, though, I'd never realized that 'Gretzky' rhymes with 'jet ski.' Two of my favorite things, too.
McIndoe: Also, she drops the Hall of Fame line while gesturing at the retired numbers, which… that's not the same thing!
Gentille: Is it possible for anyone to know what a hat trick is while also never hearing of Wayne Gretzky? I don't think it's possible.
McIndoe: That's a great point that had not occurred to me, and now both eyes are twitching. I mean, what's the sales pitch here? 'You know who would probably enjoy a commercial about how unpopular hockey is? Hockey fans!'
Gentille: Also, Gretzky is sitting next to someone who isn't Kash Patel. So unrealistic.
McIndoe: Yeah, her eyes both point in the same direction. He'd never put up with that.
Gentille: 'It's the NHL on TNT, with Liam, Biz, Ace, Hank and Jetz!'
McIndoe: I'll just say it – you win this year. Dwayne Jetski just beat the competition like it was an overripe cantaloupe rind.
Gentille: He's been accepted into the Hall of Fame.