When a brand partners with Ryan Reynolds, they know exactly what they’re going to get: The actor, producer, entrepreneur has mastered the meta-advertising genre in such a way as to set the standard for self-referential brand work, while managing to stay on juuust this side of the overkill line.
Case in point, Reynolds’s new ad for personal online security brand 1Password. Here we see Reynolds playing the role of the clueless celebrity, as he needs the help of his Personal Password Supervisor to access the various aspects of his digital life.
This is 1Password’s second-ever spot, after the brand first launched its campaign back in March in another ad created by Reynolds’s ad shop Maximum Effort.
Jeff Shiner, the CEO of 1Password, says working on campaigns like this reinforces the idea that the company’s real goal is to offer people peace of mind. “Too much of the online discussion about security leaves people feeling uncertain and afraid,” says Shiner. “We’re not interested in fear-mongering. With Ryan’s help, we’re exploring more positive ways of talking about security so even those who don’t consider themselves technically savvy can feel confident about the safety of their most precious information.”
The aloof celebrity is an age-old trope, but Maximum Effort cofounder and president George Dewey says that’s fertile commercial ground. “We try to do ads that don’t put on too much artifice and play with known tropes,” says Dewey. “1Password is such a brilliantly and painfully simple product, the idea that it would empower Ryan to feel tech-y while still being a bit clueless felt like the right balance.”
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