Groundhog Day Guy Is Back. Groundhog Day Guy Is Back.

Frito-Lay is giving the world a sequel to Groundhog Day, sort of. The snack company has created eight different commercials starring Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned Ryerson in the 1993 comedy, as a guy who's just trying to buy some Lay's potato chips but finds himself stuck in a time loop instead. The ads, which all feature Tobolowsky carrying a different flavor of chips to a grocery store cash register, will play a total of 75 times, in prime slots during shows that air on ABC all day Friday—which is, of course, Groundhog Day. Variety has a feature on how the ads, for which Frito-Lay purchased a third of all available Friday advertising slots on ABC, came to be.

"You can buy a 'view', but I can't buy a 'like,' and I can't buy someone saying, 'Hey, did you see this?' That's worth its weight in gold," an exec of PepsiCo, which owns Frito-Lay, tells the magazine. As AdWeek reports, this marks the first time Disney, which owns ABC (and Hulu, on which the ads will also air) "has offered an exclusive sponsorship opportunity featuring a brand suite across an entire day." The commercials are the fourth joint venture by Ryan Reynolds' ad agency Maximum Effort and Jimmy Kimmel's production company Kimmelot. (More groundhog day stories.)