Ryan Reynolds has already made his mark in the British football world with Wrexham A.F.C. He owns stakes in a soccer team in Mexico, a Formula One team, and a SailGP team. Now he is coming for the competitive eaters.
Ok, not exactly.
Later today, Nathan’s will host its annual July 4 hot dog eating competition at New York’s Coney Island boardwalk. The event will, as usual, be televised live by ESPN. And this year will mark the return of hot dog eating champ Joey Chestnut, who skipped last year’s event due to a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods (no veggie dogs from Nathan’s, only all-beef franks).
But ESPN viewers will also get a heaping helping of Reynolds, who will appear in multiple TV spots during the contest alongside one of the hot dog world’s biggest celebrities: Richard Galanti.
Galanti, of course, is the former CFO of Costco, the wholesale club that has sold a $1.50 hot dog and soda combo for the past 40 years, without raising the price once. Galanti was one of the Costco executives that moved earth and heaven to keep it that way.
Now Reynolds wants Galanti to bring that same approach to one of his businesses: Mint Mobile, the wireless company that he sold to T-Mobile in a $1.3 billion deal two years ago.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that Mint Mobile will soon be extending into the hot dog business. Mostly because no one at Mint Mobile will confirm my desire to extend into the hot dog business,” says Reynolds.
In fact, Mint Mobile is not expanding into sausages, at least not yet. In the commercial that will run during the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest, Reynolds will introduce Galanti as Mint’s new “anti-inflation officer,” (at least for this ad campaign) highlighting that its plans have stayed at $15 per month since launch.
“For 40 years, we did whatever it took to keep the hot dog/soda combo at $1.50,” said Galanti in a statement. “So when Mint Mobile called about making me their honorary Chief Anti-Inflation Officer, I thought it would be great to team up with a company that loves saving people money almost as much as I love hot dogs and great value!”
“We’ve been fighting inflation since 2016, when we first started selling premium wireless for $15/mo.,” added Andrew Fried, CMO at Mint Mobile. “Although his persistence in advocating for customers inspires us, not sure there will be much for our new Chief Anti-Inflation Officer to do because we have no plans to increase the price from $15/mo.”
The commercial is from Maximum Effort, the marketing company that Reynolds and his co-founder George Dewey reacquired earlier this year from the ad tech platform MNTN.
You can watch the commercial below.
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