Whitney Cummings has had a multi-talented career in Hollywood, including actress, screenwriter, stand-up comedian, podcaster, and producer. And she recently added her new skills as a “board-certified plastic surgeon,” she told the Liquid Death campaign.
Of course that is not true.
Instead, she’ll be starring for the first time in a high-concept Liquid Death ad that combines a sustainability message with a ridiculous premise. Cummings poses as a medical professional in a crisp white coat and presides over a surgical center that recycles plastic waste. Turn it into butt, chin and calf implants.
Spoiler alert — Cummings shows off three sets of his body parts in the final reveal of the video. “I’m more than just a publicist,” she says, leaning back on the cheesy old advertising trope that “I’m also a customer.”
Cummings, an investor in the company and a longtime ambassador for the canned water brand, was a strategic fit for Liquid Death’s latest #DeathToPlastic movement. According to Andy Pearson, the brand’s vice president of creative, she was “bubbly, sociable and very collaborative,” making her a perfect fit for creative.
Pearson told Adweek that the brand didn’t want to take the typical serious approach to its environmental message because consumers are “very desensitized to bad news.” But the company wanted to challenge the myth that not all plastic waste is recycled. According to the brand, only about 5% of the companies do so, offering the farcical solution of letting the remaining 95% work in the beauty industry complex.
“If you want to appeal to people, make them laugh about something based on a piece of truth,” says Pearson. “And there is nothing more silly than the idea that everyone can solve the plastic pollution problem by shoving beach plastic into their body cavities.”
Cummings is a self-professed advertising nerd who has previously appeared in spots for fintech firm Affirm and birth control systems. Anovellatold Adweek about sorting out her endorsements, sharing her thoughts, and finding the “secretly wholesome” underside of Liquid Death.
