Benedict Cumberbatch Films Two Bizarre Holiday Ads: for 'World of Tanks' and Amazon

'There are times when World of Tanks feels less like a videogame and more like a giant ad budget looking for something to be spent on,' writes PC Gamer.

This year, all those huge sacks with dollar signs on them have been thrown Benedict Cumberbatch's way, making him the game's newest 'Holiday Ambassador' and the star of an absolutely bizarre Christmas advert. The story has very little to do with Christmas and, frankly, not much connection to tanks either, featuring Cumberbatch as a sort of chaotic, supernatural therapist trying to bring a meek nerd out of his shell with the help of a chaotic crowd of his other patients. It's a good watch, shedding the usual hard man action star vibe of past celebrity trailers in favour of something that feels more like a mischievous one act play.

Cumberbatch also portrayed Smaug and Sauron in The Hobbit films (2012-2014), Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Dr. Strange in six Marvel movies. And now Amazon has also hired Cumberbatch for what its calls its 'Cannes-winning '5-Star Theater' campaign... performing real Amazon customer reviews as theatrical monologues.'
Cumberbatch performed over 15 reviews, including popular holiday gifts like the Bissell portable carpet cleaner, Toto bidet, and SharkNinja blender — showing that Amazon truly does have something for everyone on your list.

Last year Amazon produced a similar campaign starring Adam Driver ('Kylo Ren' from the final trilogy of Star Wars sequels). 'The humor comes from the juxtaposition between Cumberbatch's gravitas and the text itself,' reports Adweek, adding that the reviews were curated 'using internal AI tools, to find the most oddly specific reviews on the platform.'
Amazon will stream Cumberbatch's bizarre ads on major platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Lyft, Uber, Disney/Hulu, Paramount, and Roku, and on several NFL football games.

I remember when Amazon just chose the best funny fake reviews from customers, and then posted them on the front page of Amazon...

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