Guy Fieri is trading his signature spikes and goatee for a completely normal look in a new Super Bowl ad, and he’s genuinely afraid of how his loyal fans will react to the shocking transformation.
America’s favorite foodie, Guy Fieri, is known for many things. His irrepressibly positive approach to life, his love of greasy spoons, and perhaps more than anything, his iconic look. Which is why he’s afraid of what’s coming.
The celebrity chef and Food Network staple previewed a dramatic transformation to celebrate his 58th birthday. Feverish fan speculation over the new look can finally be put to rest, as Fieri’s participation in a Super Bowl commercial for Bosch was revealed in an extended teaser that showcases a reinvention so dramatic he’s actually unrecognizable.
Fieri spoke to Entertainment Weekly ahead of the ad dropping in full to detail the process of becoming a new Guy—literally.
“When I left corporate restaurants when I was in my 20s, the goatee was always the thing everybody knew was kind of like my chance to revolt. ‘Yeah, I have my own restaurant! I’m my own chef now, with my own restaurant. I’ll have tattoos and a goatee!'” Fieri gleefully recalls. So when he was approached to completely reimagine his famous goatee and icy spikes for a big game-day spot, he saw it as “a little bit of an in-office dare. Like, ‘Would Guy Fieri really do this?'”
It turns out he would. But it’s come with some serious trepidation.
“My commitment to doing this was, ‘Okay, we’re playing big ball. And I’ll play,” Fieri shares. “What it turned out to be, what people are going to see, I’m just gonna turn my phone off for about three weeks after this, because people are gonna hammer me.”
In the teaser, Fieri sits in a barber chair and stares nervously into a vanity, lit by a multitude of twinkling bulbs. His frosty ‘do and goatee feature prominently, until a hand holding a buzzer moves into frame and toward his face. A brief flash reveals Fieri no longer dressed in a slick red leather jacket, but a stodgy gingham button-up. Most startlingly, his spikes have been replaced by a bland mass of combed brown hair, and his face is clean shaven.
“My wife said to me, ‘I gotta see this. I gotta be there for this,'” Fieri recalls with a laugh. “Just a couple weeks prior, getting fitted for the wig and the whole thing, I realized that Bosch was really going to lean in,” he shares. “The two directors that we had come in, this whole production we did, you know, shooting up in Vancouver, it was just to the Nth degree. And that is what is going to come out.”
This isn’t the first time Fieri has graced the Super Bowl stage. He previously starred in a Super Bowl ad for Bud Light. But three years later, he’s excited to shock the millions of fans who tune in on game day with his radically normal new look.
The transformation is a stark departure from the persona that made him an international star. A native of Columbus, Ohio, Fieri’s diverse and adventurous culinary palette developed across the world, during stints growing up in Northern California, as an exchange student in Chantilly, France, and as a restaurant manager in Long Beach, Calif. He rose through the ranks in the Golden State before trekking to New York to conquer one of the most cutthroat culinary scenes in the world. The series that made him a household name, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, premiered in 2007, the year after he garnered recognition for winning the Food Network reality competition series The Next Food Network Star.
For a celebrity whose brand is built on being larger-than-life, this move is a calculated risk. The ad plays on the very identity Fieri has spent decades building. The fear of fan backlash is a testament to his connection with his audience; they love him for who he is, and a change this significant is bound to spark a conversation. The move is a bold play for Bosch, using Fieri’s immense recognition to create a memorable moment that will dominate social media and water cooler conversations long after the game ends.
Look out for Fieri’s full Bosch ad during the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 8, beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT on NBC.
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