Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl pays tribute to Canada in a commercial that will air Sunday during the U.S. broadcast of Super Bowl LVII.
“Today, let’s thank Canada,” the rocker says in a spot for Crown Royal. (Although owned by England’s Diageo, the popular whiskey brand is made in Manitoba and Ontario.)
As vinyl albums by Rush, Joni Mitchell, Oscar Peterson and Céline Dion flash on screen, Grohl says “Thank you for legends of music,” before thanking Canada for “heroes of comedy” like Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short and Seth Rogen.
The singer proceeds to showcase other inventions Canada has supposedly contributed to the world. “Thank you Canada for peanut butter, the paint roller, the replay and the battery,” Grohl lists. "The egg carton, the ironing board, electric wheelchair… and thank you for [the Whoopee cushion).”
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Grohl then thanks Canada for hockey, basketball – and football?
“Yeah, look it up,” he says.
A 60-second version of Grohl’s Crown Royal commercial airing in the U.S. during the Super Bowl LVII (in Canada, alcohol can’t be advertised using celebrities) includes other great things from Canada: Michael Cera, poutine, walkie-talkies, trash bags, canola oil, Hawaiian pizza and instant potatoes.
Of course, we had to fact-check Grohl's claims in the 30-second spot.
It’s true that the first game of football as we know it may have come from Montreal’s McGill University in the 1870s, but hockey was not, in fact, invented in Canada – although Montreal is commonly credited with being the birthplace of the sport as it is played today. Basketball was, indeed, invented by a Canadian doctor in Massachusetts in 1891.
Canadian Norman James Breakey did, in fact, invent the paint roller in 1940 in Ontario; the first iteration of the egg carton was designed by Joseph Coyle in B.C. in 1911; and the rubber Whoopee cushion was invented in the 1930s in Ontario.
Peanut butter wasn’t invented in Canada but the process of making it was first patented in 1884 by Marcellus Edson of Quebec and the first patent for a portable ironing board was awarded in 1874 to Canadian-American engineer Elijah McCoy.
Canadian inventor George Klein is credited with coming up with the first electrically powered wheelchair in the 1950s and Lewis Frederick Urry of Ontario is regarded as the creator of the first long-lasting alkaline battery. And, yes, the instant replay was the invention of German-born George Retzlaff in Manitoba in 1955.
Yes, actor Michael Cera, Hawaiian pizza and instant potatoes were all created in Ontario and poutine does indeed hail from Quebec. Canola oil, developed in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, is an abbreviation of “Canadian oil.”
Trash bags were invented by Manitoba’s Harry Wasylyk and Larry Hansen of Ontario and Don Hings came up with walkie-talkies.
Grohl also appears in a Crown Royal video in which Toronto guitarist Donna Grantis plays the national anthem. Check it out below:
Listen to music from Foo Fighters
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