How Ryan Reynolds Made Up a Hollywood Legend, Otto Desc, in Oscars Advertising Campaign

Alex Weprin
·2 min read
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It turns out Otto Desć wasn’t a Hollywood legend after all.

After a pair of pseudo-documentary spots featuring actor and director Elizabeth Banks, actor Ron Perlman, VFK supervisor Paul Lambert and cinematographer Mandy Walker aired earlier in the evening during the 2023 Oscars, the program finally revealed that all was not as it seemed.

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Otto Desć was, in fact, Autodesk, the software firm that powers the tech behind many of your favorite movies and TV shows.

And the mastermind behind the campaign? Ryan Reynolds, of course. Reynolds produced the spots through his Maximum Effort advertising banner, alongside Jimmy Kimmel‘s Kimmelot.

A source familiar with the commercial’s development says the spots were filmed in late February, and only delivered last week, a quick turnaround for such a high-profile campaign.

“Maximum Effort loves playing with the cultural landscape, and the Oscars are a major cultural event,” Reynolds said. “Autodesk has been a secret weapon for Hollywood’s artists for decades, and what better way to highlight that than to create a fake man of vaguely Germanic descent to receive an award that doesn’t exist?

And Reynolds turned to some close friends to get the campaign done, led by Banks, who starred in the 2008 romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe with Reynolds.

“I wouldn’t be the filmmaker that I am today without Otto Desć,” Banks said in one of the spots. The actress would later present the award for visual effects, a category in which many of the nominees likely leaned on software from the company.

As for who portrayed the fictional Desć in the ad spots:

“If you’re thinking Otto Desć looks suspiciously like Academy Award nominee and Free Guy VFX supervisor Swen Gillberg, you’d be wrong,” Reynolds added. “No further questions.”

Reynolds and Maximum Effort have leveraged the actor’s sense of humor and his vast contact list on previous campaigns. Most recently the company and Kimmelot resurrected a handful of characters from AMC’s The Walking Dead to appear in ads for Autodesk, Deloitte, DoorDash, MNTN and Ring, tied to the finale of the zombie series.

“Autodesk is how the world gets designed and made — including the beautiful films that delight and inspire us all. The Oscars are a night to celebrate the biggest names in Hollywood, so we’re thrilled to celebrate the design and technology from Autodesk that makes this magic possible in such a fun and creative way. And with this campaign, we’re re-introducing our inspiring company tagline — two words that effectively say it all: Make Anything.” said Dara Treseder, Autodesk’s CMO. “I’m grateful to have worked with our agency partner, Ryan Reynold’s Maximum Effort, to tell the incredible story of Autodesk’s impact — both on the big screen, and in the world.”

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