Frito-Lay is forcing ABC viewers to relive the same ads over and over and over again on Groundhog Day.
In a nod to the 1993 film starring Bill Murray, Groundhog Day actor Stephen Tobolowsky—who has several encounters with Murray's character in the film—and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Artemis Pebdani are starring in a series of eight ads running 75 times on ABC this Friday.
In each ad, Tobolowsky picks a new flavor of Lay’s chips at the grocery store, only to be met by Pebdani repeating the same lines as he checks out. Tobolowsky’s anguish grows with each purchase, leading him to eventually ask, “Are we in Hell?”
The ads will take up a third of ABC’s inventory on Friday, and will run during programming such as Good Morning America, GMA3, General Hospital, Shark Tank, 20/20, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! They’ll continue to run on YouTube and Hulu for four weeks, and during the Groundhog Day movie marathon on AMC.
Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort came up with the idea for the ad and turned it around with Jimmy Kimmel’s Kimmelot in two weeks. Ketchum provided PR support.
This story first appeared on PRWeek U.S.
