New Hope Nonprofit Featured in Google Super Bowl Ad
The Super Bowl between the Eagles and Chiefs may have been a blowout, but the game — and the commercials — still drew millions of viewers.
If you were watching the Super Bowl midway through the third quarter, you may have noticed a commercial featuring New Hope’s Can Do Canines. It was technically an ad for Google Workspace, but the New Hope nonprofit was the centerpiece.
“We’re a small to mid-sized nonprofit, you don’t expect to ever have an ad during the Super Bowl and obviously we never would have if not for this opportunity, so it’s kind of fun,” said Jeff Johnson, the executive director of Can Do Canines.
The opportunity came about last October. Can Do Canines happens to use Google Workspace, and the company reached out to them.
“After doing some research on a lot of different options — from our social media and our website – [Google] loved our story,” Johnson said. “And they said we want to help you share your story as well as sell our product, so we jumped at the chance.”
A screenshot of Can Do Canines Executive Director Jeff Johnson from Google’s Super Bowl ad.
Johnson says this particular ad only aired locally because Google produced similar commercials for organizations in all 50 states.
But still, people noticed.
“I think I got like 70 texts in two minutes, which is just kinda fun,” Johnson said. “They just kept coming in.”
Johnson estimates that at least 2 million people saw the ad and learned a little bit more about their mission to transform people’s lives with the help of specially-trained dogs.
The hope now is to continue that momentum.
“The more people know about us, the more applications we’re gonna get from clients, the more volunteers we’re gonna get, the more money we’re going to get,” Johnson said. “And that just allows us to do more and serve more people.”
50 States, 50 Stories
Sunday night’s ad was part of Google’s new ’50 states, 50 stories‘ campaign to show how businesses across the country are using Google’s artificial intelligence platform, Google Gemini, to accomplish their goals such as drafting emails or summarizing a long email chain.
From Google’s perspective, Can Do Canines was a great fit.
“This is like, training pets to make people’s lives better right,” said Harris Beber, head of marketing for Google Workspace. “So in speaking with them and understanding the type of work they do, we felt that there was a real value that AI could help them with making some of the tasks that are time consuming — but maybe separate from the work that they want to be doing — a lot easier. And that’s kind of how the two merged together.”
Meanwhile, the biggest need at Can Do Canines is for volunteers who are willing to open their homes and help raise or dog sit for their pups in training. To volunteer, you can find more information on the Can Do Canines website.
Related: Can Do Canines Trains Dogs That ‘Fundamentally Change Lives’
