Featured image for Ryan Reynolds' Latest Internet Stunt A Play On Popular Adult Subscription Service 'OnlyFans'

Ryan Reynolds' Latest Internet Stunt A Play On Popular Adult Subscription Service 'OnlyFans'

by Rudy Sanchez on 09/15/2020 | 2 Minute Read

Most high-profile celebrity personas are a well-planned, highly sanitized representation meant to have as broad an appeal as possible. Usually, it’s because stakes are high, of course; many of the rich and famous have taken a significant blow to their popularity and bank statements due to many a spicy Tweet.

And then there’s Ryan Reynolds.

The Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place actor takes comedic chances online to great effect, a reflection of his trickster tendencies and irreverent side. His constant social media trolling of his wife, Blake Lively, and sometimes-song-and-dance-man-sometime-Wolverine pal Hugh Jackman, as well as web denizens at-large, have become a staple for the Canadian actor. A bland and boring internet presence would be too inauthentic and counterproductive for an actor best known for being the cinematic manifestation of Marvel’s potty mouth prankster and anti-hero Deadpool.

Editorial photograph

His latest online prank is a play on the independent content platform OnlyFans (NSFW) and his spirits brand Aviation Gin.

Reynolds’ gin company had registered the domain OnlyGins.com in February, a play on the domain name OnlyFans.com, a platform popular with independent sex workers. The timing was prescient, as interest in the porn-filled (OnlyFans also hosts Safe-for-Work creators, but your boyfriend didn’t sign up for cooking lessons) site was just about to gain momentum, according to Google Trends. Once Aviation saw a post from photographer Wyatt Kane on Instagram featuring the bottle label-less, or naked as it were, and from behind, they put the cheeky URL to work promoting the brand.

OnlyGins.com redirects to Aviation's website, and the funny isn’t obvious to those uninitiated to Only Fans, though guys pretending to be unaware of the site when asked by their wives will still be in on the joke. Sadly, the American gin is only available for purchase modestly covered up with a label, so it was really just for the online lols.

Tagging onto the joke, Ryan Reynolds responded, asking, “Who in the effervescent f*ck approved this?” The actor very recently sold Aviation Gin to Diageo for a cool $610 million, with the spirits conglomerate paying Reynolds $335 million upfront, and retaining the actor as co-owner and creative lead for the brand.

Assuming Diageo’s check cleared (they seem good for it), Reynolds has what we often call "F*!# You money," so it is unlikely that OnlyGins.com will be the last we see from the Green Lantern star online.