"Believe" in Canada's Olympic Athletes

CTV wants "Canadians to embrace and fall in love with our Olympic heroes." You have to wonder, do they really want that or do they just want people to spend money in "support" of our athletes? In todays’ world, where everything seems to come down to money more often than not, you have to wonder. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to just simply believe that they really want us to embrace our athletes and be proud of them. When a statement like that comes from a TV network, who makes their profits off of advertising, you can’t help but be skeptical. Especially when the only way to really demonstrate that you are supportive is by spending money. It’s not acceptable to just say that you’re cheering them on. No, you have to go and by gum or McDonalds or sign up for a new credit card. And you also have to question where that money spent actually goes. It’s one thing if it does indeed go towards the athletes, but it’s another if it goes to the companies that advertise. More often than not it just seems like a load of crap.
The Believe commercials, while very well put together and inspiring, seem like a marketing ploy at the heart of it. Nonetheless, these commercials are probably successful in reaching out to Canadians because they feature hockey ("our"game), people wearing the maple leaf emblem and red and white, showing athletes working hard, struggling and pushing themselves, showing participants and audiences cheering when we win while a singer strongly sings lyrics about believing in yourself and others. The commercials play on people’s national pride and they do it successfully by displaying Canadian athletes performing, showing their talent and exerting their strength-all of which we are made to admire. In one commercial they even show a figure skater falling, but she picks herself back up. The skier is shown trying again to get more air when he takes off on the jump. The speed skater skates faster. We admire this perseverance as well. So basically, they can inspire us to be proud and embrace our athletes, to acknowledge out country but at the same time, gets us to show this support by spending money without thinking twice about it. And that’s precisely the point. That’s what makes it a successful advertisement.