Stephen Tobolowsky knows about time loops, as the actor starred in the classic 1993 comedy Groundhog Day that saw Bill Murray's Phil forced to relive the same day over and over again, including running into his awkward high school classmate Ned, played by Tobolowsky, each morning. Well, now Tobolowsky is the one stuck to play out a near identical scenario ad nauseam in a series of new commercials for Lays potato chips.
If you tune in to ABC today to watch General Hospital, the latest episode of Shark Tank season 15, Dateline or Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Friday, February 2 (Groundhog Day, in case you forgot), you may see Tobolowsky star in one of eight commercials for different varieties of Lays chips multiple times. That is because, as Variety originally reported, Disney has sold one-third of all its national advertising slots on February 2 to Frito Lays to air these special commercials. The ads will also pop up on Hulu throughout the day.
The initial commercial in the series sees Tobolowsky go to a checkout counter to buy a bag of Lays chips, while the cashier fusses with the register then comments on the Lays flavor and give some innocent banter with Tobolowsky. However, as each new commercial airs (with a different Lays chip variety), Tobolowsky becomes more and more agitated that he is stuck in this loop, while the cashier's responses are pretty much identical.
While you may not see all eight commercials during a single show, Variety reports that during most ad breaks the commercials will serve as bookends, being the first and last ad viewers see, which should help with deja vu effect they are aiming for. But if you want, you can watch all of the commercials back-to-back directly below:
One of the incredible things about these commercials that Variety points out in its article is this all came together over the last two weeks. Apparently, George Dewey, co-founder of marketing agency Maximum Effort (the other founder is actor Ryan Reynolds), reached out to PepsiCo Foods (which includes Frito Lays) Chief Creative Officer Chris Bellinger, who assumed they were talking about doing this for 2025. But using a small team they were able to quickly produce the ads in time for Groundhog Day 2024.
This idea, and the fun inclusion of Tobolowsky, speaks to the love that many people have for Groundhog Day even more than 30 years after its initial release. If these commercials or the odd little holiday where we have an actual groundhog try to predict the weather inspires you to revisit the comedy classic, we've got everything you need to know about how to watch Groundhog Day.
