Tim Hortons partners with actor Ryan Reynolds on breakfast boxes
TORONTO - Tim Hortons is baking some star power into its breakfast menu.
The café chain launched scrambled egg boxes with actor Ryan Reynolds on Monday.
The boxes developed by the Vancouver-born star of 'Deadpool' come in bacon or sausage varieties and include two scrambled eggs, hash browns and chipotle sauce.
While Tims has spent its 60th anniversary year working to lure in afternoon and evening diners with newer menu items like rice-based bowls and flatbread pizzas, the Reynolds partnership so far focuses on its strongest part of the day: breakfast.
When deciding what food to partner on, Tims chief marketing officer Hope Bagozzi said Reynolds looked for a breakfast option that resembled the bacon and eggs he and his family eat at home.
'When I visited the Tim Hortons Test Kitchen, I took my role very seriously, by which I mean I ate an irresponsible amount of eggs. And honestly? I regret nothing,' said Reynolds in a news release.
His appetite for them was so voracious that the Tims chef almost couldn't make the boxes fast enough, when Reynolds was on set filming TV and social media ads for the products, Bagozzi said.
The ads feature an assistant fulfilling Reynolds' rider, which include a newspaper with all references to birds redacted, Vancouver air, a left-handed cane, a jigsaw puzzle one piece away from completion and his beloved breakfast box.
Competition within the breakfast segment has intensified over the last decade with new players like European chain Pret A Manger entering the market and more restaurants offering all-day breakfast.
There's also been a fight for customers because some have dropped morning coffee runs as they turned to hybrid work schedules or looked for more affordable breakfasts because of inflation.
'The breakfast day part has been the hardest hit for quick-serve restaurants with hybrid working, so it makes sense to me to come up with a box, that's a different portable option versus just a breakfast sandwich,' said Jo-Ann McArthur, president at Toronto advertising agency Nourish Food Marketing.
'We know eggs are beloved at any time and I like the fact that it's kind of nostalgic, which is also a trend that we're seeing (because) consumers want to go back to that nostalgic comfort food.'
Plus, McArthur thinks the Reynolds name carries plenty of cachet for Canadians, especially in a trade war, and will resonate at U.S. Tims locations because she suspects many Americans don't realize he is Canadian because of his deep ties to Hollywood.
The risk Tims runs is that 'he is a tad overexposed right now,' she said.
The actor has also narrated an Air Canada ad, starred in marketing for Mint Mobile, a wireless company he used to own, and fundraised for SickKids Hospital in Toronto and the Terry Fox Foundation.
Tims started talking to Reynolds after wrapping a collaboration with pop star Justin Bieber that spanned 2021 and 2022 and spawned a cold brew, three Timbit flavours, tote bags and fanny packs.
'Justin Bieber, that was unique. He does not do a lot of endorsements,' said McArthur. 'But Ryan Reynolds, certainly in Canada, is fairly ubiquitous.'
Asked how much Tims is paying Reynolds, whose production company Maximum Effort, made the ad, Bagozzi said only, 'It's worth every dollar, every bit of Vancouver air.'
The night before Tims broke the news last summer to franchisees about the upcoming celeb partnership, Reynolds sent a video joking he was 'thrilled' the company chose him, when they could have gone with Robert Goulet, the Canadian crooner who played Lancelot in the original 'Camelot.'
'The room went bananas, like, it erupted,' Bagozzi recalled of the moment it was played. 'I was trying to talk and it was just like there was hooting and shouting and screaming.'
The franchisees were sworn to secrecy and Bagozzi is impressed they didn't let it slip, though the company ran a 'Deadpool' ad with Reynolds in July and teased on an earnings call that more was coming.
A second phase of the Reynolds partnership will follow the breakfast boxes. Bagozzi would not reveal its timeline or contents.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.
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