Mtn Dew’s Dewey Ryder gets behind the wheel for his first Nascar race
- The Drum, 3/22/18

When Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr announced his retirement last year, he was replaced by a driver named Dewey Ryder, at least in the ads for soft drink Mtn Dew. Ryder was played by comic actor Danny McBride, and the character proved popular enough to extend the campaign and actually put Ryder on the track.

The "Dewey Ryder: Race Day" campaign starring McBride, Earnhardt Jr and ESPN personality Marty Smith finds McBride’s Ryder pimping out the Mtn Dew car and showing off its new features before racing around the track, in an oddball spot co-directed by Gregory Jacobs and David Gordon Green.

The spot, a collaboration with BBDO, highlights Ryder’s new ride, complete with every bell and whistle imaginable such as a Mtn Dew fridge, tire spikes, a shark fin, a dreamcatcher, a gamer joystick and even a smoke machine. The humorous three-plus-minute spot also chronicles a phone conversation with Earnhardt – now in the broadcast booth watching the chaos Ryder creates – following Ryder’s first appearance driving on the raceway, along with a Q&A with ESPN personality Marty Smith.

We see Ryder finally getting behind the wheel on the track, but his weighed-down car and lack of any driving skills, finds him dead last. But, as the ad hints, it may not be the last we see of Ryder.

To view more of Gregory's work, please visit Chelsea.com.