"Rick Astley"

20 August 2022

65s

The ultimate Rick Role.

The great thing about Rick Astley is his tremendous self-awareness, and director Joseph Khan has made the most of this quality in this uplifting commercial for AAA. Not only does this film revisit Astley's most famous song, it does it with arch knowingness, not least because it has become a vehicle for one of the Internet's most harmless pranks… the rick roll.

This is a phenomenon that's become so familiar that many viewers may conclude that this isn't really an insurance commercial at all, but another instance of the widely-used practical joke.

If you watched the second series of Ted Lasso then you're sure to remember the pivotal role played by this song in the programme's most emotional scene, but you may not have seen the moving reaction to it from Astley. It's well worth a watch.

In the commercial, Astley is in typically good form, even showing off a glimpse of his acting skills when he pauses his performance to ask of two other versions of himself, with a self-deprecating shrug whether "this is still a thing". It sure is, Rick.

USA

Insurance