Over the past three years, the actor has completely taken over the ad space, promoting everything from Mint Mobile to his own Aviation Gin brand.
If it seems like every other advertisement you watch features Ryan Reynolds…it’s because it probably does. Over the past three years, the actor has completely taken over the ad space, promoting everything from Mint Mobile to his own Aviation Gin brand. And when it became clear his methods were working, he launched his own marketing firm Maximum Effort.
Ryan and his business partner George Dewey founded the company in 2018, not long after the massive success of their “Deadpool 2” marketing campaign. The duo strayed away from traditional marketing tactics in favor of playing on cultural moments and creating partnerships. Deadpool, himself, partnered with companies like Trolli Candy, Loot Crate, 7-Eleven, Mike’s Harder beer and even Espolòn, a Mexican tequila company. On top of that, Deadpool inserted himself directly into pop culture including a Good Housekeeping issue, iconic movie DVD covers (that were actually sold in stores) and a Bob Ross-inspired promo video.
The tactic, which Ryan has now coined “fast-vertising,” involves treating real-time cultural moments as a springboard to build brand buzz. In 2019, the company did just that when they used Peleton’s viral ad, where a man gifted his wife the bike for Christmas, as inspiration to promote Aviation Gin. Ryan recruited the actual actress from the commercial to take part in his new ad, which saw the once concerned looking wife enjoying a night out with friends while toasting to “new beginnings.”
“We love acknowledging and playing with the cultural landscape and thought this was a great opportunity to do something. You see how everything is divisive these days…but we had this thought that we could do this ad without contributing to that divide and without really vilifying anybody, just sort of commenting on the person and the actress in the ad. For us it was a no brainer. It was a lot of fun and it was a rush. We did this in 36 hours,” Ryan said on the “Today” show.
Then, after years of success for …….