Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort partnered with AMC Network’s Content Room to produce custom ads for The Walking Dead series finale that resurrected four fan-favorite characters.
Fans of the long-running series were surprised Sunday when their screens were filled with shots of Milton Mamet (Dallas Roberts), Andrea Harrison (Laurie Holden), Rodney (Joe Ando-Hirsh) and Gareth (Andrew West), years after they died in the series.
The characters starred in ads for Deloitte, DoorDash, Autodesk and Ring, with Reynolds himself making an appearance in one of them for MNTN, his advertising software company.
“Ads should be fun,” Reynolds said in a statement. “The Walking Dead has generated more cultural conversation over the last decade than any other property and we wanted to honor that by bringing a few characters back from the dead in some fun contextual ads. We were blown away by the total support of AMC Networks’ Content Room and the willingness to be untraditionally shown by Deloitte, DoorDash, Autodesk and Ring.”
He added, “Ads can be a part of the cultural conversation as they once so frequently were. They just need a little more love, attention and mischief.”
In one of the ads, Rodney orders takeout from DoorDash and tells the driver to come closer, saying, “Don’t worry. I won’t bite,” before adding, “Just kidding, I totally will.” The ad included a line that read “Everything in your neighborhood, delivered to your door. Or pike.” Milton Mamet, on the other hand, starred in an Autodesk ad, where he introduced the world’s first “grunt-powered door handle.”
Watch the ads below.