Through New Year's Day, we're counting down the best brand campaigns and ideas of 2020.

No. 14: In December, as this “dumpster fire” year was coming to a close, Ryan Reynolds created this hilarious spot for Match.com that summed up the past twelve months with the idea of Satan dating a woman called “2020.” The whole year the Hollywood star and entreprenuer proved a modern-day marketing master with his production company Maximum Effort, on campaigns for his own brands Aviation Gin (like an ad featuring the provocative Homeschool Edition) and Mint Mobile, along with Rick Moranis. But the Match ad marked a new turn in his marketing endeavors, seeing him apply his talents to a big brand that was not his own. His company also went on to create a spot for Frida Mom that offered a no B.S. approach to the “fourth” trimester.

Original story:

This has been a hell of a year (in a bad way) and as it comes to a close, Match aims to convey that in its latest spot, which depicts Satan finding his perfect match with a girl called 2020. 

The dating site enlisted the help of board member Ryan Reynolds and his agency Maximum Effort in creating the ad, and as usual, the ubiquitous Hollywood star puts a hilarious spin on it. The film, set to Taylor Swift's "Love Story," depicts the whirlwind romance of the devil, who finds his love on Match. It develops from a meet-cute in the park, where they both discover they're "from hell," to picnicking in empty sports stadiums, hanging out in socially distanced gyms and deserted movie theaters, stealing toilet paper and a selfie by a dumpster. The spot ends with the message: "Make 2021 your year." 

"We just imagined what a ‘2020 match’ would look like and this video was the natural, slightly warped result," commented Reynolds. “Match is responsible for bringing millions of people together and even in this dumpster fire of a year, people somehow found love on Match. Also, this stuff gives me something to think about during the board meetings.”

(Note: Reynolds wrote the ad but doesn't actually appear in it: in case you were wondering Satan and 2020 are played by actors Aaron Reed and Natalie Roy, respectively. )

As part of the campaign, which is running on social platforms, Match even created Match profiles for both Satan and 2020. (His biggest regret: going down to Georgia. Her body type: long and lean.) There's also another video, in which Satan and 2020 discuss their relationship.

CMO Ayesha Gilarde said: “Sometimes you have to make space to laugh. Ryan and the team at Maximum Effort created a story that speaks to this hellish year, while acknowledging the incredible resilience of singles. We can’t wait for the love stories of 2021.”