John McClane Does Car Batteries
Over the weekend, a tweet went out from Rumer Willis, the daughter of Bruce Willis – known for his portrayal as the terrorist arse-kicking John McClane in the Die Hard movie franchise that everyone loves.
👀 #DieHardisBack #ad pic.twitter.com/UHn8RSBGP0
— Rumer Willis (@TheRue) October 17, 2020
It brought the sizzle too, with the hashtag #DieHardIsBack. If you jumped onto the hashtag bandwagon, there were tweets from the comedy music group The Lonely Island – with member Andy Samberg known for his love for Die Hard as expressed in the TV series Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Tell your dad we still want him to be on B99! 😉 #DieHardisBack #ad https://t.co/BdNyQrQDBJ
— The Lonely Island (@thelonelyisland) October 17, 2020
There was also a tweet from the newly created account from De’voreaux White, who played McClane’s limo driver Argyle in Die Hard.
I'm Dae. You know me as "Argyle”. I drive the limo for John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Hard. Now I'm on Twitter and all I can say for my first tweet is, something exciting happens this weekend😁#DIEHARDISBACK #ad #myfirstTweet pic.twitter.com/EP7MbSYvKu
— DeVoreauxSefasWhite-Dae (@DaeSefasWhite) October 17, 2020
So the speculation began. Could the 15 second video snippet be hype for:
- The whispered 6th Die Hard movie
- A new music video from The Lonely Island starring Willis as McClane
- Willis finally making a cameo in Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s new season
Turns out it was none of the above.
It was a two minute commercial for ‘Die Hard Platinum Batteries’ from car accessory supplier Advanced Auto Parts.
Which would also explain the hashtag disclaimer used “#ad”, which is common in tweets from sponsored profiles.
A very clever marketing strategy, which has done its job.
Now bring us the 6th movie – we’ll reserve our ‘Yippy-Ki-Yay’s for then.