Coleman F. Sweeney is an asshole. He’s the type of person who buys truck nuts for his battered pickup to go along with his tacky bumper stickers and he shoots dogs with paintball guns that crap in his yard. He's also the center of a new PSA from Donate Life America, a group that works to encourage people to sign up as organ donors.
Portrayed by Thomas Jane (The Expanse, The Punisher), Sweeney’s story is played out in a deceptively touching short film that draws you in before it flips to a genuinely powerful reveal. The narration by Will Arnett (Arrested Development, Bojack Horseman) doesn’t hurt.
It’s a fun, hilariously crude piece of advertising
It’s a funny and crude work of advertising that highlights a pretty important issue: there are plenty of people out there who are in need of organs, and even terrible people can do some good. According to Adweek, the promotion was designed to appeal to "millennial men to become organ donors, as that demographic has dropped off in recent years."
The Martin Agency, which created the ad, felt that the crude language and humor was an ideal means to talk to this particular demographic. It also feels a bit like it's trying to connect the selfishness of the "world's largest asshole" to the common complaint that millennials are self-centered, terrible people, as Will Burns does for Forbes.
Will it appeal to millennials? Probably — it's a funny ad. It's been shared around quite a bit, and at the very least, it's a welcome reprieve from the sort of Sarah McLachlan-esque ads with sappy music that aim to shame viewers into taking action. Whatever the intentions, it carries a solid message, one that will hopefully work to get more people to sign up to help someone down the road.