Commercial acting can be a very funny business. Regular movie or TV stars end up becoming these incredibly popular people in our lives. We see them every night or every week on our favorite shows, but that's also true for commercial actors. We just may not notice them as much.
Commercial actors have the difficult job of endorsing a product or service they might not care about or believe in. Afterwards, they are forever connected with the product, for better or for worse. There are certain actors we see again and again on commercials, yet we may never know their name.
Worst case scenario, your performance in a commercial turns you into a meme, which is exactly what happened with a new Peloton bike ad that viewers felt was more like an episode of the dystopian show Black Mirror. Luckily the actress in that commercial got a second chance thanks to Ryan Reynolds.
A new commercial for an exercise bike has been the newest viral video to set the internet in a tailspin. The ad is for a company called Peloton which sells exercise bikes that use integrated video to inspire its users to push themselves harder during the workout. In the commercial, a woman is gifted the bike by her boyfriend or husband and then we follow her through her journey using the bike. Something about the ad felt like a Black Mirror episode. Black Mirror even has an episode where people are forced to ride exercise bikes for currency. Viewers feared for the woman in the video's safety.
The commercial became a viral hit, which had many people wondering what would happen to the poor commercial actors in the commercial. Would they forever be mocked for this one gig they probably thought no one would ever even really see?
All of this happened within a couple of days from the commercial's release. That's why it was so amazing that by the end of the week, the girl in the ad appeared in another commercial for another products: Ryan Reynold's Aviation American Gin. What makes the Aviation commercial so spectacular is that it is playing off of the Peloton ad. The girl from the Peloton ad can be seen drinking gin with a thousand yard stare. Her friends are around her looking worried. She then says "this gin is really smooth" before downing the rest of her drink. Her friends toast to "new beginnings." The ad concludes with a friend saying "you look great by the way."
Everything about the ad is an obvious reference to the Peloton commercial. Ryan Reynolds even tweeted it out saying, "exercise bike not included."
This is another example of just how quick-witted Ryan Reynolds is. He is known for being a great comedic actor, but what many people don't know about him is that he's a big creative force in many of the movies he's in, like Deadpool which he shares a writing credit. He was able to turn a negative situation for an actress into something incredibly positive that will surely land her more roles.
The ad also features an America's Next Top Model contestant, Mercedes Scelba-Shorte, who plays one of the friends. She is a spokesperson for the Lupus Foundation of America. Despite the controversy, it's a lot of publicity for the Peloton bike company. Any press is good press, but at the end of the day, Ryan Reynolds came out on top. He truly is a national treasure.
