In a new advertisement by NBC to promote the Winter Olympics in Milan, the Canadian pop star Tate McRae acts confused.
“I’m a bit lost,” Ms. McRae tells a computer-animated white owl perched on a signpost against a wintry terrain, before removing her ski helmet and shaking out her hair as if suddenly in a shampoo commercial. She asks the owl for directions to the opening ceremony, and shouts out the U.S. figure skating team, the skier Lindsey Vonn and Sunday’s Super Bowl, while her single “Nobody’s Girl” thumps as a backing track.
NBC is the U.S. broadcaster for the Olympic Games. For fans of Ms. McRae’s home team, Canada, it almost seemed as if she got lost on her way to the CBC, Canada’s Olympic broadcaster.
The video, which Ms. McRae, 22, posted on her Instagram page on Tuesday, has induced strong feelings from some Canadians, at a time when national unity is soaring across the country in the face of threats by President Trump.
Mr. Trump has often suggested he would use “economic force” to annex Canada and make it America’s 51st state. His punishing tariffs on Canada’s auto industry and major exports like steel and aluminum have sent Prime Minister Mark Carney on a search for bilateral deals and trade opportunities with countries like China and South Korea to diversify Canada’s economy.
Against that backdrop, Ms. McRae’s decision to represent America’s Olympic interests played like a record scratch.
It was the subject of radio shows and social media chatter, with users expressing disappointment and anger. Some made digs at Alberta, her home province, which has been at the center of a separatism push. With a touch of overstatement, the magazine “Toronto Life” called it “treason.”
But others would call it effective marketing.
“It’s a deliberate play by NBC to draw interest among Generation Z,” said Vijay Setlur, a sports marketing instructor at York University in Toronto, adding that a heightened sense of nationalism could cause more viewers and younger viewers to tune in.
“The political climate, actually, if anything, is a boon,” he said.
Emails to NBC and Ms. McRae’s publicist were not immediately returned.
The fallout has not quite reached the level of betrayal felt by Canadians against the hockey great Wayne Gretzky, who has close ties to Mr. Trump. And while unabashed patriotism was not always a defining aspect of Canadian culture, the economic attacks by Mr. Trump and the deteriorating relationship between the neighboring countries have brought Canadians together around the flag. There have been national campaigns to boycott American products and cross-border travel.
In the advertisement, Ms. McRae also promotes Sunday’s Super Bowl: “Then back to the States for the big game,” she said, wearing an all-red ski suit. The Grammy nominated singer who was born on July 1, Canada Day, and grew up in Calgary, has said the city feels less like home to her now, though she cheers for the Flames, her hometown National Hockey League team, and is occasionally spotted at games. She often references her Western Canadian roots in her music videos, appearing in cowboy boots for her “Exes” music video and in a hockey arena for her song “Greedy.”
In the last month she has been photographed in New York City with the New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes, who is on the U.S. hockey team, but has missed several games with an injury.
Ms. McRae was the headliner at the N.H.L. All-Star Game in 2024 and acted as a celebrity coach. The hockey trope has followed her while touring her act, where one of her signature accessories was a hockey glove. The sport was a big part of her upbringing, she has told reporters: “I’m Canadian, so I have to like it.”
Vjosa Isai is a reporter for The Times based in Toronto, where she covers news from across Canada.
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