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Comment by deepzn | Hacker News Reader

This is Ryan Reynolds' second company he has sold which he has a "significant stake" in after he sold his Aviator Gin to the big whale, Diageo brands. He's been able to leverage his status and marketing talent to grow those brands significantly. Other actors, athletes also do this, but perhaps he is the most noticeable. George Clooney also sold an alcohol brand to Diageo. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-15/t-mobile-....

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Ryan Reynolds youtube channel is an exemple in how bad 99% of advertising campaigns are. Almost everything he posts are ads for his companies or ventures, and not only am I subscribed but I eagerly watch every content he post as soon as I get the notification.

A part of it is that it's funny and well made, the other parts is that the content doesn't have that "bullshit ad" factor, I don't know how to explain it, he knows it's an ad, you know it's an ad, nobody is hiding from it.

And you will find that 90% of comments under his video are saying the same thing I am here, the guy has essentially made watching ads fun.

(also, some of his Gin ads are hilarious, like his "Ryan Reynolds' Vasectomy" cocktail recipe)

I'm not sure you can blame advertising campaigns. Ryan Reynolds' 'thing' is being self-aware that he's Ryan Reynolds doing something. It's basically the M.O. of Deadpool.

He makes it look easy, but I'm sure it's hard to replicate.

The T-Mobile acquisition video makes that painfully evident.

90% of YouTube comments are hive mind borderline bot generated "direct quote from video" foam finger NPC I'm with stupid verbal diarrhea. His videos/ads tee up such comments which are social proof to further draw in more viewers that generate more such comments.. and now "ads are fun to watch when Ryan does them".

He gets a pass, fine, sure, but goddamn.. I watched (and yes, enjoyed as a guilty pleasure) a few of those and YouTube recommended me this crime against humanity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3JGsCAu9A

I never thought I'd say this but there is such a thing as too Canadian. Enough already. Go kick a cat or something to balance it out.

At the same time, I recognize there is a lot to be learned from that guy. God I hate marketing. And humans. I mean love. Everything will be fine, just remain positive.

Edit: Not to self, stay in your lane Kowalski. Stay. In. Your. Lane.

hive mind borderline bot generated "direct quote from video" foam finger NPC I'm with stupid verbal diarrhea

Using commas between adjectives would help with readability to optimize your content engagement. As it stands, it can be difficult to distinguish between adjectival phrases that use nouns like "foam finger." Since diarrhea can be foamy with integrated gaseous contents and I guess can be initiated with a finger (maybe?), it is unclear if the phrase should be "foam, finger, verbal diarrhea" or "foam finger, verbal diarrhea."

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/204202/can-the-o...

Maybe I just have a soft spot since he's Canadian, but I think in this case Mint's provided some real genuine net benefit for consumers and I think using Reynolds positioning helped them get there.

I'm in a high coverage low density area, where MVNOs excel, and I frequently get people thanking me for recommending they switch.

Complete speculation, but I'd hazard a guess that they were able to offer such cheap service during the era of near zero interest rates coupled with their masterful use of celebrity to market their service made them an user acquisition machine and that T-Mobile is now paying a mint (no pun intended) to acquire all those users.

> Maybe I just have a soft spot since he's Canadian

Given that Mint isn't available in Canada, I presume that you must be in the US.

OP said consumers not themselves specifically. OP could very well be Canadian and see that a fellow Canadian has provided a valuable service for American consumers even if they themselves aren't able to take advantage of that service.

Exactly! I'm a Canadian living in New York. Reynolds & Gosling are two Ryans we hold pretty dear to our hearts, though they're both are so world famous folks often guess them to be American.

The alcohol stuff always amazes me. Making a gin isn't rocket science. Aviation Gin was basically a no-name brand. The fact that attaching a celebrity name brings so much value is mind-boggling to me.

When everything tastes almost identical, branding and marketing is all that can distinguish them.

https://www.complex.com/style/hip-hop-celebrity-liquor-brand...

As a football enthusiast I'm also really interested to see where he takes Wrexham.

Hopefully not to just sell it :-(

If he does eventually sell it, I hope it's to fans, not a corporation.

That's the thing about success.. if he can turn it into success at a certain level, oil money will be after it.

They did talk about selling it. From their doc, they knew nothing about soccer before buying it. Just the idea of promotion/relegation meant like as a business opportunity they buy a team for 2m in the 5th division in England, if they make it to the Prem, it'll be worth 100-150m, and in 5-10 years maybe more, if Prem League appreciates in advertising value, etc. Will be interesting, they will likely move up to the next division this year or next. Still moving up the next 3 divisions will be the toughest.

I did really enjoy the documentary/tv show!

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