Ryan Reynolds Hires LeVar Burton for Aviation Gin Ad After Successful Jeopardy! Campaign

It’s been a whirlwind week for former Star Trek star LeVar Burton. Fans have been calling for some time now that he should be among the guest hosts that appear on Jeopardy! with the likes of Ryan Reynolds rallying around him to show support. The executive producers for the game show have confirmed that Burton will be among the final guest hosts that will be featured for the year. Not satisfied with securing LeVar a job at Sony Pictures Television, Reynolds has announced he’s campaigning for him to take part in “literally everything” which apparently begins with an ad for Reynolds’ Aviation Gin company.

“Everybody’s been saying how great LeVar Burton is,” Reynolds says at the start of the ad. “So I decided to have him step in for me as spokesperson for Aviation Gin.” Burton then appears on screen outside by a pool, delivering his ad read: “The smooth refreshing taste of Aviation American gin for an out of this world gin and tonic.” Reynolds adds, “Now that man is a god damn national treasure, and he’s probably too good for this.” The ad cuts to black and the pair banter back and forth with Burton implied to be inside Reynolds’ head. Watch it below!

When Burton was confirmed to be a host for Jeopardy!, Reynolds showed his support writing “This needs to be a permanent gig.”

“THANK YOU… to all y’all for your passionate support! I am overjoyed, excited, and eager to be guest-hosting Jeopardy!, and will do my utmost best to live up to your faith you in me. YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE! Go ahead and take my word for it, this time,” Burton said on Twitter. “Special shout-out to Joshua Sanders who started the petition.”

This Aviation Gin ad also marks yet another tremendous quick movement by Reynolds, having been part of a 4/20 themed ad for HighKey earlier this weeg. The actor has put out an array of great ads for his companies including one for Mint Mobile that brought Rick Moranis out of retirement and another that featured a Cameo from Gary Busey. His ad firm Maximum Effort also made a funny Match.com commercial recently. The actor even graced the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine and spoke about his advertising philsophy.

“We’re really risk-averse. So, people really think that we like to shoot from the hip, because we move so quickly and that sort of stuff,” Reynolds said. “But, we really think this stuff through. We really find our guard rails. In the same way I write Deadpool. It’s like, ‘Okay, what is a person that’s hyper-sensitive to this type of material going to say?’ What’s the guy who just doesn’t give a **** about anything going to say? I want to find the middle where everyone feels sort of seen in that.”