Mint Mobile and its owner Ryan Reynolds have launched a video campaign based on a PowerPoint presentation in lieu of an ad, as coronavirus halted production.
The ad is for low-cost wireless carrier Mint Mobile, of which Ryan Reynolds is the majority owner, and was created by the ad agency Reynolds also owns, Maximum Effort Productions.
Reynolds starts the ad by explaining that it was in the middle of making an ‘epic’ ad but that because of coronavirus, they’ve stumped for just a PowerPoint. The ad then continues onto a parody of PowerPoints, complete with cheesy stick imagery and, at one point, a puppy.
The ad also teases jokes about Reynolds, cutting to a scene of his desktop and showing a quick video of the actor’s mum.
Creating ads in a quick, imperfect manner is inherent to the Maximum Effort way of doing things, even prior to coronavirus. The agency was founded after the success of promoting Deadpool at a low budget, pushing Reynolds and co-founder George Dewey to come together for wider briefs and clients.
Speaking to The Drum earlier this year, Reynolds said that imperfection and striving to do more with smaller budgets didn’t always harm the creative process.
“I think you have to have an ability or willingness to not be overly precious about everything,” reckons Reynolds. “You have to be comfortable with showing your mistakes and your triumphs.
“I mean, I've worked in movies with $150m budgets, and the problems are almost identical to movies with a $10m budget. There's never enough time and there's never enough money. And the movies I've worked on that have less or fewer resources at their disposal seem to be a little bit more creatively fulfilling just because you have to lean on character a little bit more than spectacle. I think the same may apply in the ad world.”
The ad will appear across Mint Mobile’s social channels on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
