Trying to define Canadian identity is a thorny question at the best of times, usually addressed in the negative, that to be Canadian is to not be American, or to not be European.

Mostly, the attempts at definition have come from the essayists, journalists, and critics of the arts whose comments are focused on what they read or see.

But there is a whole other realm of cultural expression that rarely gets the attention it deserves, and whose influence is certainly no less significant in shaping the way we see ourselves, namely television commercials.

In a special report in this issue of Playback, beginning on page 19, we went to a cross-section of commercial directors and asked them to help us define Canadian distinctiveness.

Most agreed that Quebec creative has its own, clearly articulated difference, expressed often by a unique sense of humor and cultural nuance.

Not surprisingly, the differentiating factors of English-Canadian work were harder to capture.

Here are but a few of the highlights:

David McNally: ‘The ‘I Am Canadian’ spots for Molson were one of the first attempts to show real Canadians. Would that work in America? I doubt it. We couldn’t show Americans sitting on a couch in the middle of a cow field. An ‘I Am American’ spot would focus on the small town, blue-collar thing, with a completely different sense of communityÉ

‘American and South American clients I’ve worked with have commented on the European sensibility in Canadian advertising. It’s that ability to value visually beautiful things, even though we don’t have the history that’s behind European beauty.’

Mark Walton: ‘I would say the best Canadian creative comes from a quiet dignity, a belief in the product and less of a hard sell.’

Curtis Wehrfritz: ‘There’s a saying that Americans watch tv and Canadians watch American tv. It’s true that we’re influenced by their work, but it also informs what’s different about Canadian creative. We decide what not to copy, what not to be influenced by, and knowing what we don’t like opens up the possibility of trying different things.’

And the final word goes to Alastair Payton:

‘I think this decade really belongs to the Canadians if they can just manage to go further. The clients are getting younger and younger and there’s no reason the agencies can’t follow suit. But I think we get very lazy and tend not to ask the right questions, or repeat the usual stuff.

‘It’s our duty to go out there every day and start from scratch and ask ourselves how we communicate with people and how they’re spending their time and their money and the emotion behind the choices they make.’