Google Canada dropped an ad for the Pixel 7 featuring Toronto Raptors forward (and NBA Rookie of the Year) Scottie Barnes touring Toronto and showing off the company’s new smartphone.
Unsurprisingly, the Pixel 7’s camera chops are on full display as Barnes pauses to snap pictures throughout Toronto. The ad flips back and forth between showing Barnes’ perspective walking through the city and raising the phone to snap pictures, then cycling through those pictures.
There’s also a nod to Google’s Messages app around 12 seconds in, possibly a dig at Apple as Google continues its shame campaign over the iPhone maker’s refusal to add RCS support (one of the major complaints is that the lack of RCS causes images sent between Android and iOS devices to look significantly worse).
The ad shows recognizable aspects of Toronto, like the city’s red and white street cars, grungy subway, someone dressed for Caribana, the CN Tower and tons of Raptors fans.
Keen-eyed viewers might also notice the various placements for Bell throughout the ad, including a digitally altered Bell signal in the Pixel 7’s status bar (which happens to be on the wrong side of the phone) and a white car with lines sporting Bell’s signature blue. There’s even what appears to be an edited bus stop advertisement in the background of one of the photos (it could be real, but I’ve never seen a bus stop ad that clean in my life).
You can check out the ad on YouTube. Or, if you’re curious to learn more about Google’s new smartphones, check out our Pixel 7 review here, and Pixel 7 Pro review here. Alternatively, you can read the Pixel Watch review here.
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