【Mother】

When Bennifer reunited in 2021,Mother a generation who was young, horny, and reckless in the early mid-2000s breathed a profound sigh of relief. More than any of the rom-coms Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez starred in with other people, this was a love story: Young romance. A breakup witnessed by the world. Lives that pulled them in other directions only to find each other again in middle age. Even cynical Gen Xers might swoon. 

The delights of watching their love from the outside just keep coming, leading from Lopez's 2002 album about their romance, This Is Me…Then, to her ambitious and audacious visual album This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, which is now on Prime Video and features Affleck in a curious cameo. Theirs is a path littered with paparazzi photos, music videos, and that adorable footage of a giddy Affleck snapping pics of Lopez undulating in award glory. Far from the Sad Affleck memes, here he was, radiant with pride and joy in his partner. And then came the Dunkin ads. 

Ben Affleck + Dunkin feels like a gift JLo gave us all. 

Jennifer Lopez has mastered the art of celebrity, becoming not only wildly famous, rich, and successful, but also spinning scandals into platinum records (This is Me...Then and Rebirth) and This Is Me…Now: A Love Story. Meanwhile, Ben Affleck haspublicly declared, "I hate being famous. I don’t mind if I’m not famous. I want to get away from all this, I can’t stand it." 

Like Lopez, he's been the target of tabloids, but also savage superhero fans and merciless memes. So yeah, one can see why for Affleck fame isn't all one might hope for. But now, he's rewriting the narrative with a little help from Dunkin.

His first Dunkin ad, featuring Affleck taking drive-thru orders of unsuspecting Dunkin devotees, ran during the 2023 Super Bowl and reportedly paid him $10 mil. In it, the star who hates fame seems to give it all up to just devote himself to his one true love: Dunkin. And Affleck didn't only star in the clever commercials, he also produced them through his production shingle with Matt Damon, Artists Equity.

Watching the ad, I can't help but wonder if JLo was the influence who finally convinced Affleck to say yes to Dunkin, who'd pitched him as a spokesperson several times before this. She does have a brief cameo in the Super Bowl ad, offering fans a playful look at their dynamic, which becomes a theme with the 2024 ads. Plus, she shares his Dunkin spots on her Instagram, which boasts 253 million followers. 

Now, I am not a celebrity gossip reporter. I have no inside scoop. I'm not even gifted at discerning blind items. So, what I suggest here is pure speculation based on simple celebrity math. She's great at celebrity, and he is growing in that skill under her influence. Affleck may still feel uncomfortable with fame, but at least he's having fun with his persona now — and he's gone from a punchline to being in on the joke.

Dunkin's "Popstar" ad is Ben Affleck at his best. 

As a film critic, I love when Affleck plays the fool. Whether in Good Will Hunting as the caring but dopey bestie, Gone Girlas the bamboozled bad husband, or The Last Duelas an asshole aristocrat, he is divine when he's not trying to play it cool. And he leans into that energy hard for the kickoff to Dunkin's 2024 ad campaign, which debuted during the Grammys. 

The ad beginswith a news report calling him "The Boredest Man in the World" — notably using an image of Bennifer where she is regal and he looks uneasy. Affleck rebuts this by calling his wife, offering to contribute some "beats" to her upcoming album. (Cross-promotion for This Is Me…Now in a Dunkin' ad? Savvy!) Unseen and unheard in this ad (she'll pop up for the Super Bowl sequel), Lopez declines his offer. Rejected and brooding, Affleck plays a caricature of himself, cradling a box of Dunkin donuts while ranting in a Boston accent thicker than Dunkin's frosting. 

Bearded and growling to himself, he says, "They tell you you're no good. You're a goofy, middle-aged clumsy white guy with no rhythm and you can't sing on key. You're not coordinated. That means I can't be a pop star?" As he muses, the A-lister places a large bit of bling around his neck. Naturally, it's a Dunkin sprinkled, chocolate iced donut, reimagined as a glittery oversize necklace. Don't be fooled by the rocks that he's got, he's still Benny who's wicked smaht. And the ads continued, teaming him up with long-time bestie and "partner" Matt Damon and retired Patriots quarterback Tom Brady as the DunKings.

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There's a glorious freedom in such self-parody. Affleck is saying out loud the worst fear of many a middle-aged American man: Maybe he's not cool anymore. And just by saying it out loud, it's not so bad. Actually, there's something undeniably cool about Affleck owning the jokes about his Dunkin runs, his bored expression at awards shows, his Boston accent, and even his aging out of Batman. He's showing us that he's still here, funny and charismatic as hell. 

Where This Is Me…Now: A Love Story is a grandiose exploration of Jennifer Lopez learning to love herself despite a myriad of romantic missteps, Dunkin's "Popstar" is Ben Affleck finding his own reckoning. At 51, he's hitting a hard realization that a lot of his non-famous Gen X peers have felt as well. It's not glamorous. The beats aren't sick, but sickly.

Yeah, ultimately these ads are just trying to sell you coffee and donuts. Yet they give us something more: about Gen Xers confronting middle age, about Ben Affleck confronting his public persona, about getting over yourself. And that's something we can hold onto.

As Affleck himself says in that proud snarl in the "Popstar" ad, "Underestimate Boston at your peril." He may be older, clumsier, and arguably less cool. But for those of us who are tired, for those of us who are ornery, for those of us who are bored in formal events, he is the hero we deserve.