Ryan Reynolds lends his voice—and his meme-savvy—to Visa’s new haunted-island spot, a Maximum Effort production that leans into the newly purchased Fyre Festival IP. The premise: Fyre Fest as a literal “zombie brand,” with Reynolds narrating a tongue-in-cheek escape tale that lands on Visa’s “everywhere you want to be” (and his tag: “and some places you really don’t”). The timing tracks with LimeWire’s July purchase of Fyre Festival’s trademarks and social handles for ~$245k, followed by a licensing deal enabling Visa’s creative to use the asset—smart arbitrage on cultural equity that costs far less than building a new storyline from scratch.
Beyond the creative hook, one of Maximum Effort’s key selling points is distribution. Reynolds routinely promotes campaigns across his personal channels—Instagram (51M+) and YouTube (4.67M+ subscribers)—turning paid creative into organic reach. The Visa ad has already been viewed over 1.8M times on Instagram and ~22k times on YouTube. For brands, that means you don’t just buy the creative; you buy Reynolds’ amplification.
As for how Maximum Effort works with partners, their model is rooted in “fastvertising”—quick-turn campaigns designed to ride cultural waves. Unlike traditional agencies, they often negotiate packages that blend creative production with Reynolds’ own star power as part of the media plan. That unique deal structure is why companies like Netflix, Mint Mobile, and now Visa have leaned in: you get both a zeitgeisty ad and the guarantee of Reynolds pushing it to tens of millions of fans.