If you've got a weirdly specific idea for a celebrity, now is clearly the time to pitch it.
We recently saw Hugh Jackman strip down to the buff for a 90-second ad about boots. And if that seemed oddly niche, we clearly weren't prepared for what was to come:
A car battery ad starring Bruce Willis. As Detective John McClane. From Die Hard. For DieHard.
In a 2-minute spot from Dallas-based agency The Marketing Arm, Willis reprises his most famous role for the first time in seven years (not that we ever speak of "A Good Day to Die Hard"...it was a bad fever dream, not a film).
This is the first time the DieHard brand (owned by Advance Auto Parts) has crossed over with the Die Hard movie franchise, and Willis says he was impressed with how well the concept tied together the two similarly named but otherwise unrelated properties.
As an ad, it's a great way to get people thinking about the DieHard brand, that it's only available at Advance Auto Parts and that winter weather is coming quickly. (October is apparently a peak time to consider battery replacement.)
As a short action film it's...pretty confusing, honestly. The dialogue is muddled, and it's never entirely clear what's going on. Plus, how many fans will remember Theo, the ad's antagonist, being the hacker from the original 1988 Die Hard? Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber pretty much fills everyone's mental real estate from that movie.
But it's generally a fun and well executed, if a bit hard to follow, slice of faux Hollywood, and I have a soft spot for fake-movie rug pulls like Tourism Australia's supposed reboot of Crocodile Dundee from 2018.
So which film series should be rebooted next as an ad? Personally I've got my fingers crossed for James Bond selling Gold Bond Medicated Powder. But send me your ideas at the email below or at @Griner on Twitter.
David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
David.Griner@Adweek.com
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