Skip to content

Super Bowl commercial stars local sled dogs

This upcoming weekend’s Super Bowl football extravaganza will feature a few local furry faces during commercial breaks.
Pistachio is one of the six Snowy Owl dogs to start in a Suzuki Super Bowl commercial filmed in the Spray Valley.
Pistachio is one of the six Snowy Owl dogs to start in a Suzuki Super Bowl commercial filmed in the Spray Valley.

This upcoming weekend’s Super Bowl football extravaganza will feature a few local furry faces during commercial breaks.

Several of Snowy Owl Sled Dog Tours’ hard working canines are to be featured in an advertisement for American Suzuki Motor Corporation during the major sporting event that attracts upwards of 111 million viewers.

Carlin Kimble, vice-president of Snowy Owl, said making the commercial earlier in the season was a lot of fun and challenging.

“We had a team of six dogs we had to train to bob their heads up and down to the music,” Kimble said. “It was interesting and a challenge, but overall we had a good time.”

However, it was not until recently that the company became aware the commercial spot would air during the Super Bowl this Sunday (Feb. 5) when the New England Patriots and New York Giants face off in Indianapolis.

Kimble said while Snowy Owl dogs have been featured in movies before, the scale of the audience and attention this event will bring to Canmore is spectacular.

“It is a huge honour,” she said. “The fact our dogs are going to be seen during one of the biggest (televised) events in the world – we were shocked.

“We are excited and we think it is great… to promote dog sledding and our area.”

Canmore Business and Tourism president and CEO Andrew Nickerson said the level of exposure for Canmore, Snowy Owl and Kananaskis with a commercial spot like this is phenomenal.

“It is fabulous exposure for our area,” he said. “It creates an opportunity for us to get online through social media and get the message out there.”

Nickerson said those watching the spot may think it was filmed in the arctic and it will be up to the destination marketing organization to use social media and get the message out there that it is actually here.

“We know it is cute and funny – it is going to have a reaction,” he said. “It is a great opportunity to capitalize on that… and let them know it is the Canadian Rockies.”

The commercial is called Sled and highlights the automobile company’s all-wheel drive 2012 Suzuki Kizashi sports sedan.

It was filmed on Spray Lakes in the provincial park and Kimble said casting and training for the commercial took several weeks before it was filmed all in one day.

The six dogs on a sled team, driven by Snowy Owl’s vice-president Jereme Arsenault as a double for the Inuit actor in the commercial, are then seen returning in the Suzuki Kizashi.

The one-minute long commercial features Bear, a six and a half year old Siberian and Canadian Inuit husky mix, Hudson, a one-year-old Canadian Inuit husky, Fram, a six-year-old seppala Siberian husky, Ninja, a three-year-old Canadian Inuit Husky, Pistachio, a two-year-old Alaskan husky, Merlin, a six-year-old Alaskan husky and Yukon, a seven-year-old Siberian husky.

The dog in the front seat of the commercial, seen to be tapping his paw on the dashboard to the song “Party Still Jumping” by BKM, is Nitro.

Kimble said while Nitro is not a Snowy Owl dog, he is an experienced canine actor and belongs to the casting agent that the local sledding company works with when production companies are looking for sled dogs.


Rocky Mountain Outlook

About the Author: Rocky Mountain Outlook

The Rocky Mountain Outlook is Bow Valley's No. 1 source for local news and events.
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks