One of the things about Sally Albright that drives Harry Burns crazy in the 1989 movie “When Harry Met Sally” is her picky food sensibilities. It takes her an hour and a half to make a sandwich, he tells her. In the sequel, she only has 30 seconds.
The characters, famously played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, return to New York’s Katz’ Delicatessen for a reprise of one of the movie’s best-known scenes in which Sally pretends to have an orgasm while the pair dines. Now, they will also promote Hellmann’s mayonnaise in the Super Bowl.
With the movie recently reaching its 35th anniversary and being accepted into the National Film Registry, “it just felt like the perfect storm for us to get back together at the same table and have indigestion,” says Crystal, during a recent interview.
Hellmann’s, which is owned by the consumer-products giant Unilever, is showing its ambition for the Super Bowl commercial, the brand’s fifth. In recent years, the popular condiment has focused on the issue of food waste, telling Big Game viewers that the mayonnaise can help them use more of the supermarket staples that they buy. Last year’s Super Bowl ad tapped Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson and a “Mayo Cat.”
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In contemplating another Super Bowl ad salvo, executives wanted to shake up the mission, says Jessica Grigoriou, senior vice president of marketing for condiments at Unilever, and show how the mayonnaise helped make for superior eating. “We want to continue to up the bar every year and continue to surprise people too and do something a little bit more unexpected.” she says. The ad taps humor and nostalgia, she adds, two themes that regularly prove popular at the Super Bowl. The new 30-second ad is slated to run in the second quarter during Fox’s telecast of the event on February 9.
Reviving a classic piece of content, however, is never easy. Indeed, past Super Bowl advertisers have resurrected popular film and TV characters, but usually not in the scenes that made them so memorable. General Motors in 2022 reconvened the cast of the 1997 hit “Austin Powers” in a new tale that has the popular character Dr. Evil, played by Mike Myers, trying to take over the auto giant in a new bid to control the world. Characters from HBO’s “The Sopranos” were resurrected that year for a spot from Chevrolet. In 2019, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Stella Artois ran a Super Bowl spot featuring Jeff Bridges as “The Dude” from “The Big Lebowski” sitting near Sarah Jessica Parker playing Carrie Bradshaw from “Sex and the City.”
Others have tried similar feats in other venues. Comcast in 2019 created a sequel of sorts to the beloved 1982 movie “E.T.” with the alien and actor Henry Thomas turning up for a longform commercial during NBC’s broadcast of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The company consulted with director Steve Spielberg to make sure it stayed true to the conceit.
Neither Ryan or Crystal had qualms about picking up where they left off (indeed, the table they sit at in the commercial is the same one used so many years ago in the film). “ I had never been back, ever,” says Ryan. “It looks precisely, exactly the same.” The rapport the actors still share, says Crystal, will make viewers feel as if the characters “have been coming there for 35 years every Saturday or Sunday and this is their thing.”
The commercial may have been more challenging than the movie, suggests Ryan, who did ads for Burger King and deodorant in a different era. “I always felt like movies were easier, frankly, with less attention to detail, you know?” she says. “There is a lot that 30 seconds or 45 seconds or 60 seconds have to communicate. It’s a different animal.”
Hellman’s isn’t leaving anything to chance. Fans can order the turkey and pastrami sandwiches they see in the new Super Bowl spot, says Grigoriou, with special instructions included to make the meal to Sally’s specifications (which require Hellmann’s to make things complete). Customers can even schedule the delivery for the Friday before the Super Bowl.
Even though the ad nods to an old film, it still has a new surprise. Sydney Sweeney makes a cameo to offer the oft-remembered line, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
The recreation of this specific scene shows just how much consumer culture has changed in the decades since the movie was on screens. In 1989, depicting an orgasm in public was viewed as tripping the lines of decency. At the time, “you hadn’t heard the word ‘orgasm’ in a film unless it was a Ron Jeremy movie,” says Crystal. Now, “there’s far worse on TV.” Oh, Harry.