Seth Rogen voices Ryan Reynolds' infamous ugly sweater in support of SickKids

Canadian actor-turned-ad man Ryan Reynolds is back on the small screen this holiday season, dressing up in his ugliest Christmas sweater to star in a fundraising video for the country’s SickKids Hospital for the fourth year in a row. Created in concert with Reynolds’ ad agency Maximum Effort, the short spot for Toronto-based SickKids—which is formally known as the Hospital for Sick Children—got an additional celebrity boost this year thanks to fellow Canadian Seth Rogen, who stars alongside Reynolds as the voice of the bow on the front of his hideous, well-known sweater. The video also features a brief two-word cameo (“Hey Ryan”) by Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews in the form of a clip that appears to be recycled from one of SickKids’ previous fundraising spots. Published to Reynolds’ YouTube page on Thursday morning, the roughly 55-second video has already amassed tens of thousands of views, further proving that the “Deadpool” actor’s stardom has been a boon for the Canadian pediatric hospital during the years he’s been a part of their marketing stunts. Following a similar fundraising video released in December 2021, in which the actor provided SickKids staff with medical scrubs modeled on his so-called “aesthetically challenged” sweater, the hospital saw donations in excess of 640,000 Canadian dollars, local media reported. That was more than double what Reynolds’ efforts drummed up in the winter of 2020, when the hospital’s façade was decorated with an ugly sweater made of Christmas lights. At the end of this year’s video, a title card notes that Samsung Canada is also joining the effort this holiday season and will match up to $100,000 worth of donations that are made before Christmas Day. Replicas of Reynolds’ ugly sweater are also available for purchase on SickKids’ 5Fifty5 gift shop website, with a portion of the proceeds going to benefit the hospital.

Seth Rogen voices Ryan Reynolds' infamous ugly sweater in support of SickKids

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