OTTAWA - In one of its final communications with Canada, the outgoing Obama administration is engaging in pigskin politics: asking the Trudeau government to overturn a regulation affecting ads during the Super Bowl.

The U.S. trade representative wrote last week to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, urging her to reverse the CRTC's new ban on "simultaneous substitution" of Canadian commercials during the football spectacle.

The telecom watchdog ruled in 2015 to prohibit broadcasters from swapping their own signals and ads into U.S. TV channels carrying the Super Bowl.

The decision took effect Jan. 1, preventing simultaneous substitution of the ads during the big game set to air on Feb. 5.

The regulator has been under intense pressure from the National Football League, politicians on both sides of the border and Bell Media, which owns the right to broadcast the Super Bowl in Canada, to drop the new policy.

But the CRTC says viewers tuning in to the game in Canada will still be able to see Canadian ads.