As suspected, Craig Robinson is notquitting comedy, he’s just doing a commercial. If the prankster lead-up campaign didn’t reel you in, perhaps the fact that some of his old friends from The Office are also in the ad will trigger some of that millennial nostalgia. The new ad is for AT&T, for which Robinson has appeared as the faux Chief Technology Officer and for which the cast of the beloved NBC comedy has reunited before.
If you’re on the fence about the whole ad campaign thing, you probably won’t be won over by the fact that this ad has an AI twist. (Much like the crypto and NFT fads, we’re starting to see a lot of celebs shilling for AI products, from Matthew McConaughey’s Salesforce AI commercials to Kim Kardashian posting praise of ChatGPT’s “accountability.”) In it, Robinson recruits Ellie Kemper, Angela Kinsey, Creed Bratton, and Oscar Nuñez to help launch his small business, which is an AI alarm clock called “CrAIg.” His (fictional) small business is meant to help other people with small businesses, which is apparently the point of the campaign (“Every morning, small business owners rise to meet big challenges, and we rise with them,” AT&T says in a press release. “Whether you’re opening your doors for the first time or expanding to your next, our connectivity solutions grow with you”). It’s not even selling any specific AT&T AI product; presumably that bit is just included to acclimate us all to our inevitable AI-powered future.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, this campaign will “follow” Craig Robinson over the next year as he “works to grow his” (again, fictional) “business.” “This campaign isn’t just a one-off moment — it’s a multiyear movement designed to shine a light and celebrate the real journey of small business owners,” AT&T Business said in a statement to the outlet. “We wanted to break the mold by bringing beloved cultural icons to the forefront. By casting them as themselves—playing versions of their own entrepreneurial journeys—we create authentic, relatable stories that resonate deeply with small business owners.” Okay!
