Ryan Reynolds wanted to send ‘Peloton girl’ Monica Ruiz a 'year's supply of gin' after the backlash to her controversial ad
'Peloton Girl' Monica Ruiz's face is everywhere!
She got the chance to meet Ryan Reynolds on 'The Today Show' in what can be called her first major interview.
Ruiz became an internet sensation after her Peloton ad sparked quite a rage and was called "creepy" and "sexist", and it even inspired countless parodies as viewers came together mock the ad, Shockingly, the backlash led to the company losing as much as $1 billion in value.
Ruiz told Today host Hoda Kotb, “It’s crazy to see my face everywhere this much and see everyone talking about it.” Blaming her brows, Ruiz said, “My eyebrows looked worried I guess. People were like, “You look scared.” I’m telling you, it was my face, that was the problem, and it just exploded it from there. She looks worried.”
Her popularity reached a new level when the ad caught Reynolds' eyes and he immediately contacted her for a role in a commercial for his company, Aviation Gin. In the advertisement, she plays a woman who seems to be in recovery from the trauma of her exercise. Tweeting out the ad to his followers, Reynolds captioned it, “Exercise bike not included.”
On the show, the 'Deadpool' star explained how the idea popped into his mind. “It started with a text to my creative partner,” Reynolds said. “He sent me the ad and I go, “Oh, wow, I see why there’s some backlash. Can we send her a year’s supply of gin?”‘ Reynolds said. “And that sort of evolved from there. We love acknowledging and playing off of the cultural landscape and we thought this was a grand opportunity to do something.”
“We had this thought that we could do this ad without contributing to that divide, without vilifying anybody, just sort of commenting on this person, and the actress and the ad all at once. For us, it was a no brainer. It was a rush and we did it in 36 hours,” he said.
The Peloton Girl hopes people can see her as an actress. “I like to do movies and TV, and I’m not actuality the Peloton lady, (so) let me work other jobs,” she signed off.