You tell one little lie for 15 years and make one half-hearted apology, and everybody throws a fit.
Buffalo Wild Wings has announced it will stop airing commercials featuring [Steve] Rannazzisi, who became the brand’s pitchman earlier this year.
“Upon careful review, we have decided to discontinue airing our current television commercials featuring Steve Rannazzisi,” said a spokesman for Buffalo Wild Wings in a statement.
They’ve even taken his ads off their YouTube page, which only makes me want to see them more. Here’s one:
Hey, it’s the bad guy from The Karate Kid. Plus another white guy, but with a beard. Apparently, that’s Steve Rannazzisi. Look how he lights up the screen. You can’t keep your eyes on him.
Clearly, Rannazzisi is integral to the Buffalo Wild Wings brand, not to mention a creative juggernaut in his own right. It’s unclear how BW3 will recover from this debacle. Where in the world will they find a bland, inoffensive, mildly amusing comedian who likes sports and didn’t lie about barely surviving 9/11?
Rannazzisi has a Comedy Central special set to air tomorrow night, and as of now that’s still happening. The special is called Breaking Dad. Do you get it? Do you get why that’s funny? It’s similar to the name of that TV show everybody liked, but the joke is that it’s slightly different. I don’t know why I’d never heard of Steve Rannazzisi until a couple of days ago.