LOS ANGELES — A preview screening for the upcoming film “Deadpool & Wolverine” featured a fourth wall-shattering moment where the title character turned directly to the camera and presented a thirty second Mint Mobile commercial, sources confirm.
“Alright popcorn munchers, listen up,” said the Merc with a Mouth, who was joined by both Wolverine and a green cartoon fox. “Sure, Thunder From Down Under over there has a Nokia flip phone because he’s from the 1800s and Canadian, but you and I are normal. We have the best, most modern phones and we don’t want to pay for huge contracts. When I was on AT&T, I could barely afford my daily chimichanga. But with Mint Mobile, you can get unlimited data for only $15 a month. That’s almost like the unlimited power that wrinkly-chinned Grimace got when he had those power stones. Speaking of power stones, I have a couple in my pants right now. Scan the QR code on the screen while I make a smoothie.”
Although the ad is expected to bring millions of dollars in business to Mint, not all participants in the film were thrilled with the scene’s blatant consumerism.
“Listen bub, movies are about having fun and eating Twizzlers, not whatever this is,” said an exhausted fifty-five year old Wolverine as the scene continued. “When I had my emotional sendoff in Logan, which I’m now undercutting by being in this movie, I didn’t turn to camera to promote the tourism board of Australia. Trust me, I wanted to, they offered me a lot of money, and the koalas are something special. I joined up with Wade to kick some ass and cut people in half, and all he can talk about is this cell phone carrier and something called Aviation Gin. I don’t know what those things are, but he keeps making snide remarks about them like it’s an inside joke. I’m going back to musicals after this.”
Despite the controversy, experts say this kind of guerrilla marketing is not unprecedented in cinema.
“Celebrities use their films to hock products all the time,” said film critic Leonard Maltin. “George Clooney only made Ocean’s 11-13 because he knew he could portray Danny Ocean as a massive fan of Nespresso. Rihanna appeared in Battleship as a character desperate for low-cost, high-quality lingerie, and her climactic moment comes when she discovers Fenty Beauty. David Fincher had to cut a scene in Se7en in which Gwyneth Paltrow’s disembodied head espouses the health benefits of her Goop vagina candles. And it’s a worse film for it.”
At press time, sneak peek attendees described a scene where Deadpool fights hordes of mutants while promoting “Welcome to Wrexham” on FX.
