I Speak English and French, NOT American: Canadian Advertising from an Intercultural and Postcolonial Perspective
Published: 2017
Author(s) Name: Erhard Lick |
Author(s) Affiliation: Professor, Marketing and Communications, ESCE International Business School Paris, France.
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Abstract
The purpose of the present paper was to explore the famous Canadian Molson beer TV commercial from both an intercultural
and postcolonial perspective. This commercial, also referred to as ‘the Rant’, was selected because of the significant role it has
played for the creation of Canadian identity since the mid-1990s. For this purpose, the method of critical discourse analysis was
applied. The analysis revealed that, besides showing the cultural, political, and linguistic differences between Canada and the
US, it mentions Canada’s Inuit and Francophones only implicitly, i.e. it uses the discursive strategy of ‘backgrounding’. In addition,
it omits immigrant groups and Indian peoples. This strategy is referred to as ‘suppression’. Thus, ‘the Rant’ primarily addresses
Canadians of Anglo-Saxon ancestry.
Keywords: Advertising, Canada, Critical Discourse Analysis, Cultural Studies, Post-Colonialism
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