The Seann William Scott Commercial You Forgot About Seeing In The '90s
It's no secret that many of today's biggest actors got their start in commercials. Paul Rudd peddled Super Nintendo, Courtney Cox was in the first commercial to actually call a woman's period a period, and Mila Kunis shilled for Lisa Frank. Commercials pay good residuals for actors, and a struggling thespian can live off one TV spot for some time.
Seann William Scott must have been grateful for the ad work he got back in the day. The actor broke big in American Pie as Stifler, maybe the grossest bro in the extremely bro-y and gross movie. Stifler is also well-remembered for his mom, played by Best in Show's Jennifer Coolidge. Stifler's mom gave us so much, including the word "milf," whose spike in usage can be tied directly to the first American Pie movie. Scott reprised the role of Stifler in American Pie 2, American Wedding, and American Reunion. He also starred in Evolution, Southland Tales, Goon, and Dude, Where's My Car? But before any of that happened, Scott was shunning the purple stuff in favor of everybody's favorite orange juice-adjacent beverage.
Seann William Scott gets dunked on in a '90s Sunny Delight spot
The Sunny Delight (or Sunny D, as the cool kids used to say) commercials are stuck in millennials' brains, along with that anti-piracy PSA and every word to Sisqó's "The Thong Song." Seann William Scott's commercial epitomizes the campaign. Scott plays a teenager, new to the neighborhood, shooting free throws in his front yard. A neighborhood hottie approaches, and he brags about his basketball prowess. Then he offers her a drink. Scott lists every liquid in his fridge — "soda, OJ, purple stuff" — before landing on Sunny Delight. Then she also displays basketball prowess. Where Scott was All Conference, she was All State. His world rocked, Scott must come to grips with a world where women are not only allowed to play basketball but excel at it.
The Sunny Delight commercials were parodied on Saturday Night Live in 2019. Rather than advertising a beverage, the Chance the Rapper-helmed sketch features a Pop Tart lookalike called Tasty Toaster Tarts. Like in the Sunny D spots, Chance lists all the foods in his cabinet before settling on the tarts. Unlike the Sunny D commercials, it quickly becomes apparent that Chance has murdered his family for denying him the right to snack on a flaky pastry crust. We hate it when that happens.