The Benaissance is here!

All hail The Benaissance!

Something as rare as Halley’s Comet has occurred in the digital space: the entire internet is in agreement! Specifically, everyone is tickled by the Dunkin’ Donuts viral moment last Sunday, that is now universally being lauded as the best Super Bowl commercial in years. Those horrendous tracksuits that Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Tom Brady wore — you know, those Mob Wife-flavoured, 80s-inspired pink and orange windbreakers? Well, Dunkin’ Donuts released them as special-edition merch on their site earlier this week, and the entire collection sold out in 19 minutes.

Just yesterday, Dunkin also released a new limited-edition menu that looks it would give Wilfred Brimley a jammer, and on Tuesday, they dropped an extended cut of the DunKings bop on YouTube, starring Ben Affleck having a Southie-flavoured midlife creative reckoning, dressed in his (real-life!) Leonardo DiCaprio-esque f*ckboi uniform.

Whoever thought up this campaign (a sequel to last year’s first Dunkin’ Donuts ad, starring Affleck) and put it all together? These people don’t just deserve a raise…they should write an online marketing course and sell it, and live off the resting income forever. Because this campaign managed to do something marketers almost never accomplish: effectively appeal to multiple generations. Creating a plausible, delightfully foolish short-form storyline that featured two Gen Z superstars (Charli D’Amelio, who has 152 million TikTok followers, and Jack Harlow, the world’s most curiously popular white rapper-meets-electronic DJ), three A-List Gen X bros (Ben, Matt, and Tom), Bronx legend Fat Joe, AND Jennifer Lopez? And to slowly disseminate the campaign across multiple media platforms, building towards the big day, without blowing it? And to pull it off, without being cringe? This is very, very hard to do.

The craziest part? There is mounting evidence that the marketer who thought up this whole thing, including the storyline, was Ben Affleck himself, in partnership with his team at Artist’s Equity (the indie studio he and Matt Damon founded last year). On the red carpet this week, JLo sweetly described him as being, “so self-deprecating and so lovely and so brilliant and so smart.” She’s right, he is seIf deprecating — remember that this all started because Affleck was willing to laugh at himself becoming a downtrodden meme. Hollywood egos are notorious for taking themselves seriously — but this dude, who is a brilliant filmmaker and multi-Oscar winner, remember — is coming up with ad campaigns repping his working class hometown coffee chain, and candidly talking about his personal struggles and shitty movies. Most famous people don’t speak in interviews with this level of openness and lack of calculation…but Ben does, and it’s refreshing.

He’s also openly advocated for a ceasefire in Israel-Palestine (THANK YOU), and repeatedly spoken about rising Islamophobia in America for years (who can forget this famous interview with fake intellectual Sam Harris, and smug ass n-word loving Bill Maher? Apparently journalist Erica Ifill hasn’t been able to…SAME, Erica). Was Ben coked out during this now-famous appearance on Real Time, as a lot of people claim? Maybe! He does look pretty juiced, and he’s talking, uh, really fast. But I don’t care, because what he was saying about foreign policy was right — and he was clearly being earnest, even if he was sweaty AF. Harris literally started the debate with, “you know I am very well educated on this subject” (ugh) — as Erica states in her tweet above, he did this to make a point to “intellectualize” his racism, thereby asserting his POV as justified, above others on the panel (sigh…we all know a guy like this, don’t we?) Like, Sam…do you know how annoying you have to be to be the most grating dude in a convo, when you’re talking to a guy from Boston who has just inhaled the better part of an eight ball?

So yeah…party-era Affleck, freshly juiced for Batman? He might’ve been less articulate and “measured” than Harris and Maher in this convo, but his, uh, active nostrils could smell bullsh*t, and he wasn’t down for being gaslit…and neither was New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof:

@hamzahsaman_csa

“It’s gross. It’s racist.” Today is a good day to remember that time when legend Ben Affleck brilliantly and passionately called out Bill ... See more

So yeah, in summation, Ben’s always been smart, and passionate — but it’s clear that his sobriety over the last few years has sharpened him up, and is taking him to the next level. At his worst, he wasn’t at the early 2000s Robert Downey Jr. stage pre-sobriety, not even close…but he was clearly and openly struggling for a few years, as paparazzi documented with cruel frequency. So it’s great to see him thriving in his career, co-parenting with aplomb, and living his best second act life alongside his Leo queen.

In fact, Ben’s recent moves kinda remind me of what Ryan Reynolds has been up to over the last few years — but for some reason, Ben’s media presence feels more homespun, as opposed to Reynold’s brilliant, meticulously-crafted pivot into covert branding supremacy. As he’s settled down into his sobriety, Ben has clearly become more comfortable with himself, and as a result, his nerdy enthusiasm has been on full display during recent interviews (seriously, his insights on media and entertainment are brilliant). During a press junket late last year, he randomly spewed a phenomenal, off-the-cuff assessment of current day celebrity culture, and how the entertainment industry is evolving as a result of changing technology and platforms. This is a guy who listens to his kids! Also, another rarity — how often do you see Hollywood dude bros (re)marry women their own age, and continually pump their career tires? NOT OFTEN.

This all begs the question: are we living in The Benaissance? I think we officially are. Because this guy is firing right now — after directing last year’s critically acclaimed “Air”, his new project that he executive produced, “Small Things Like These”, is already getting major Oscar buzz. A chilling historical tale starring the brilliant Cillian Murphy, “Small Things Like These” focuses on the horrific asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions in Ireland for almost 200 years, and is debuting at the Berlin Film Festival later this week. Critics are saying that it’s good enough to win the festival’s coveted Golden Bear award (how this all goes remains to be seen, however — the festival is currently marred in controversy, for their handling of perceived censorship, and also how they’ve handled protesters). Reminder: Germany is a wild place right now.

This resurgence all started because Ben was willing to laugh at his meme-able face, and turn his whole life around. Let’s give ol’ Benny his flowers! This is a come up we can all get behind. Oh yeah, one last thing — don’t feel bad for Matt Damon having to appear in these ads…not for one minute. Remember, this is the guy who appeared in, to this day, the most ridiculous cameo appearance in the history of film.

See you next Monday! In the meantime, you can also come hang on Instagram at @midlifemeltie for more “in-the-moment” thoughts. Some topics I’ll be melting down via email newsletter next week:

• TikTok round up: what’s trending “over there”

• Brené Brown, Jay Shetty, and the hypocrisy problem of some spiritually vacant thought leaders

• A ode to my beloved New York Times cooking app

• Bey’s foray into country, and how it’s going to elevate North America’s fastest-growing musical genre

• Ethical journalism, and why manufactured claims against UNRWA, and other unverified claims, need to be taken very seriously

• Low-rise jeans — MAKE IT STOP, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF G-D

• The rise of male gossip (aka podcasts)

• Flowers are blooming in Antarctica — no, really

• The cult of celebrity, and why it’s a sinking ship

In the meantime — have an amazing weekend. And remember to get some fresh air, okay? The world is pretty heavy right now.

Lex