While numerous sponsors for the Canadian broadcast are confirmed, and CTV says it has met its revenue targets, by Friday morning the network had yet to sell all its ad spots.

Lay’s is launching its ‘Simply Made. Simply Good’ campaign during this Sunday’s game. The three new spots feature a potato farmer who hosts his own television call-in show and speaks passionately about local, 100% Canadian potatoes. Also on the roster is South Korean car manufacturer Kia, which is airing its mysterious 15-second teasers for its new Soul; and Coke, which will carry on with the Olympic torch ads unveiled earlier this month.

‘All our clients who grab spots in the Super Bowl actually have not produced special creative, unless of course you are a major sponsor,’ says Florence Ng, VP of broadcast and investments at media buying firm ZenithOptimedia. ‘All those Super Bowl-related commercials, most of them are done in the States I would think.’

Meanwhile, for the first time, Quebecor Media’s Videotron, which has 876,700 digital TV subscribers in Quebec, announced it will air U.S. commercials, uncut, during the big game — taking advantage of CRTC rules that say simultaneous substitution only applies when the quality of the broadcast is equal to or better than that of the U.S.

Last month, the CRTC ruled against Bell ExpressVu for ignoring long-standing simultaneous substitution rules and allowing U.S. commercials to air on its domestic feed of the Super Bowl HD telecast last year.

From Media in Canada