Hollywood is up in arms about AI “actress” Tilly Norwood — with the virtual performer’s recent eruption on the scene stoking new fears about how artificial intelligence might upend the business.
Now Ryan Reynolds, the “Deadpool” star who is fond of playing entertainment-industry inside baseball, is riffing on the Tilly Norwood brouhaha to sell… affordable home broadband wireless service. He (or someone on his team, anyway) found a real-life person named Natalie “Tilly” Norwood to star in a new ad for the wireless home internet service being launched Wednesday by Mint Mobile, the low-cost wireless brand that Reynolds sold to T-Mobile in 2023.
The point? While “AI can fake a lot of things” it “can’t fake unbeatable value,” per Mint Mobile.
“Everything about Mint Mobile seems unreal. And now, we’re introducing 5G home internet for $30 a month. Yes, that’s real! That’s why we invited Tilly Norwood, a real Mint customer, to help us announce it,” Reynolds says in the 30-second spot.
“You are real, right?” Reynolds asks Natalie Norwood in the commercial. “Yep,” she replies. Reynolds continues, “Not an AI-generated combination of actors?” To which a bemused Norwood replies, “I’m a combination of my parents.” A voiceover at the end of the ad notes the new offer is available only to “carbon-based organisms.” (Watch the 30-second spot below.)
The spot was produced by Reynolds’ Maximum Effort advertising and production company, which Variety is assured did not use any generative-AI technology for the finished product. That includes the sped-up legalese voiceover, which was recorded by voice actor Amanda Cook.
Mint Mobile’s new “MINTernet” home internet service, which runs on T-Mobile’s 5G nationwide network, starts at $30/month for the first three months (for customers who have a Mint phone plan). After the intro offer, customers can lock in the $30/month rate by renewing on a 12-month plan (an upfront payment of $360), or renew on another three-month plan for $10 more per month (an upfront payment of $120 with a Mint voice plan and $150 without).
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Watch Reynolds’ Tilly Norwood spot for Mint Mobile:
From Variety US