Commercial Shoot Invades Park Slope With Mean Sociological Experiment: Part II

Last December, I stumbled across an Ally Bank commercial shoot mean sociological experiment at the Associated Market on 5th Avenue, and now that I've seen the final product, I'd like some questions answered.

To re-cap: This past winter, as part of a commercial shoot, Ally Bank staged a hidden camera spectacle wherein an actor would ask a shopper to cut in line at the check-out. When the actor reached the register, balloons dropped from the ceiling and a pretty woman appeared with a giant check, informing the actor that he'd just "won" $50,000 for being the millionth customer. This left the polite man who let him cut in line looking (and surely feeling) like a dumb asshole.

While watching this debacle unravel over and over from a nearby cleaning supply aisle, I noticed that the people in charge of production failed to brief the victims properly after they were made to believe they missed out on the fortune. "I almost won $50,000 but some man went ahead of me in line,” an older gentleman explained to me outside of the store. No one bothered to tell him that it was all a ruse, which led me to my next qualm with the production: there were very questionable actions when it came to the signing of waivers. In the end, a friend of mine whose boss was also a hapless victim called the production company posing as a lawyer with disgruntled clients, which led to the alleged "wiping" of that day's footage. 

The final commercial (whose footage doesn't seem to have been "wiped," unless they went back to Associated Market and did the whole thing all over again), featured above, is part of a national campaign -- You may recall having seen similar ones, like the stranger who asks a dude to watch his briefcase containing $200,000, or the one where a dry cleaner replaces their staff with a blender. I'm a sucker for hidden camera stuff (can't get enough of Betty White's Off Their Rockers), but I find the connection between the content of the commercial and the services they're advertising to be tenuous at best. "People don't like to miss out on money that should have been theirs," they offer to the viewer. Yeah no shit; tell that to the old man you duped who was kicking himself for missing out. "No nonsense, just people sense" eh, Ally Bank?

But we still gotta know: who's the lucky dude who made the final cut and starred the commercial? Does anyone know the guy in the popped-collar jacket, cuz we got some questions for him. Some of our readers who stumbled onto the shoot (read: simply trying to buy some groceries) claim to have been paid between $50-$300 just for being punked. So what did they pay you, man in the commercial? Do you get royalties every time it airs? Are you a member of the Screen Actors Guild now? What was going through your head after that dude in front of you won 50 big ones?

Kudos on perfecting the You've-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me-right-now face, btw. We definitely see why you were the chosen one.