And whether or not Punxsutawney Phil, or any other local marmots, see their shadows, you’ll definitely see a new set of Groundhog Day-themed Frito-Lay ads on ABC.
That’s because Ryan Reynolds‘ Maximum Effort brand has crafted a cheeky set of commercials starring Groundhog Day star Stephen Tobolowsky — best known to fans of the beloved 1993 film as Ned “BING!” Ryerson.
The spots will run all day Friday on ABC and Hulu; in each one, Tobolowsky is seen returning to the same cashier over and over again — each time trying to purchase a different flavor of Lay’s chips and each time getting increasingly suspicious.
But like Bill Murray‘s character, every time he relives the same moment, Tobolowsky’s character gets more and more upset. “I’m never gonna get out of here,” he moans as the time loop continues.
Eventually, the cashier, Always Sunny‘s Artemis Pebdani, gets dark: “Do you know how many flavors of Lay’s there are? You’re never getting out of here. We haven’t event gotten to the Veggie Poppables yet.”
“Ooh, they make Veggie Poppables?” Tobolowsky asks, hopefully.
Apparently, Maximum Effort conceived of the chain of ads just two weeks ago and reached out to Frito-Lay, which approved the quick turnaround. Jimmy Kimmel‘s Kimmelot company helped get them to air.
In keeping with the looping theme, Frito-Lay, Kimmel and Reynolds issued cheeky, identical comments about the spots, noting in part, “Creativity is at the core of everything we do at Maximum Effort and that allows us to bring fun ideas to life over, and over, and over again.”
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