Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
Some of the American Super Bowl commercials were outstanding: John Malkovich for Squarespace, Peter Fonda in a Mercedes-Benz, Tom Brady brushing his teeth for Intel. And the Anheuser-Busch commercial inadvertently waded into the immigration fray with impeccable timing.
They were all available for viewing before Super Bowl LI. And they’re still available online, perhaps for perpetuity.
The football game was OK, too, because really, who watches the Super Bowl for the commercials?
A CRTC ruling allowed Canadians to watch the American commercials on Fox’s telecast. Canadian viewers used to have to watch Canadian commercials when the game was simulcast on Canadian networks.
Bell Media said the recent ruling cost the corporation millions of dollars in revenues, leading Bell to lay off employees such as Scott Rintoul, the hard-working and enthusiastic play-by-play voice of the B.C. Lions.
Bell’s parent corporation makes millions of dollars and its billing practices are open for debate, but in an era when journalists are losing jobs because of cutbacks, this is one cutback the CRTC didn’t need to inflict.
