Shane Gillis goes head to head with Danny McBride in an absurdly funny new ad for prediction market platform Kalshi.
McBride wrote the four-minute commercial, which stars Gillis as a weatherman who can’t seem to get the forecast right. McBride isa meteorologist at a competing network who is somehow always spot on.
Fed up with his lousy predictions, Gillis puts on a pantyhose mask and goes to McBride’s home, where he finds his rival offering meatloaf and rosemary potatoes to a mysterious oracle played by Deep Roy, who played the lead Oompa Loompa in Johnny Depp’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and who had a guest role on McBride’s “Eastbound & Down.”
Clad in a red and white robe, Roy appears with a pony and tells McBride, “Tomorrow is going to be 68 degrees, cloudy, thunderstorms.”
Once McBride is out of sight, Gillis kidnaps the oracle in hopes of taking advantage of his weather prophecies. But he learns the hard truth when he finds out Roy is simply getting his information from Kalshi.
“You’re not even a magic wizard. Anyone can do this. You’re not real!” Gillis says.
An abridged version of the four-minute spot will air during Game 1 of the World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers. The commercial was helmed by Randy Krallman, who directed the original E*TRADE talking baby commercials and, more than a decade ago, was signed on to direct a McBride film called “Bullies” that was never produced.
“In the past year I’ve made some questionable trades on contracts for local weather, Costco hot dog prices and cricket,” McBride said in a statement. “Working with Kalshi to make this very unique ad was a great way to both make amends on some of my questionable predictions, but also get to work with Shane, and reunite with my good pal, Deep Roy.”
Prediction markets like Kalshi — which allow users to bet real money on real-world events like sports, politics and, yes, weather — have used their marketing spend to court big-name talent. This summer, Timothée Chalamet signed a multi-year creative partnership with Kalshi and starred in a widely publicized ad. This fall, Kalshi competitor Polymarket released a splashy ad starring LeBron James, Spike Lee, Emily Ratajkowski and more celebs. And even Jake Paul’s sports-gambling app Betr made headlines (and received a cease-and-desist letter from HBO) for an ad reuniting “Entourage” stars Jeremy Piven and Adrian Grenier.
“From the moment we met Danny and Shane, it was clear they wanted to create something truly original,” said Keaton Inglis, Kalshi’s head of growth. “They brought an incredible level of creativity and collaboration to the process. Together, we built a campaign around forecasting and predicting with Kalshi markets, but we never wanted them to feel like traditional spokespeople. They had the freedom to do what they do best: bring unforgettable characters to life, with the humor, personality, and performances that have made them icons.”
Watch the ad below.