The beloved actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is conquering social media in the runup to the Super Bowl, with last week’s Instagram post he made with himself portraying the Greek god of thunder viewed more than 2.5 million times already.
In the post, Schwarzenegger has golden hair and a golden beard and sports burnished golden armor. The skies behind him are angry, with dark blue clouds and lightning striking the earth.
In the snippet of the upcoming Super Bowl commercial for BMW’s new all-electric vehicle however, Schwarzenegger as Zeus looks like he has just stepped off Mt. Olympus for a quick coffee. But his rather unusual — okay, unique — name, poses a problem for the server, whose task it is to write the name and announce that his coffee is ready.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in smoldering performance as Zeus goes viral on global social media
“I got a macchiato for a…. Zayoos? Zoyss? Zoyss!” He finally announces triumphantly, proud of himself that he has conquered the pronunciation of the name.
“It’s Zeus,” intones the Terminator, with his eyebrows knitted and clouds figuratively gathering behind him, despite the sunny Californian exterior of the coffee shop.
“Whoa…. kind of like the Greek god of lightning?” The young man asks incredulously.
“Exactly like that,” Zeus growls. Calmly taking his macchiato, Schwarzenegger gives one last withering glance back at the waiter as he goes back to his seat.
The spot is garnering an incredible buzz before the big game — just as BMW intended, no doubt. Having Schwarzenegger release just the poster just prior to the Super Bowl is another piece of marketing genius which BMW has practiced in the past, most notably with its spot featuring American television veterans Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric — which was also for an electric vehicle.
That Super Bowl advertisement, back in 2015 was to promote the much smaller i3 electric vehicle made by BMW. That charming video received almost four million views on YouTube before it even aired — a remarkable marketing feat in itself.
This is the Terminator’s second foray into Super Bowl advertisements, after having made a cameo for Bud Light back in 2014. Schwarzenegger also featured in a Big Game campaign for an app for Mobile Strike in 2016.
Salma Hayek Pinault, who co-stars as Zeus’ consort Hera in the advertisement, uploaded her own Insta movie poster to accompany Schwarzenegger’s. Also now a veteran of Super Bowl ad campaigns, she appeared last year in an old clip from the Grown Ups series that had been filmed for than a decade prior.
That clip alone was seen by more than 2.5 million viewers on Super Bowl Sunday in 2021.
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