Aubrey Plaza's deadpan and sarcastic approach to playing April Ludgate earned the character legions of fans, so it makes sense a company would want to tap into that energy for a commercial. It's paid off for Mountain Dew since people are already discussing the spot before the big game. On X, formerly known as Twitter, @joneyre declared, "Super Bowl Sunday is just for the Aubrey Plaza Baja Blast Mountain Dew commercial." For the actor, the ad was more than just a paycheck.
Plaza gushed about her old "Parks and Rec" co-star and getting the chance to work with him once again to Variety, stating, "It was so fun because I love Nick so much, and even though we're not playing our characters in 'Parks and Rec,' it does feel in some way like a little April and Ron reunion, and I feel like in some alternate universe, this is exactly what they would be doing." The characters have a special friendship on the sitcom, with Ron acting as a father figure to April. Plus, they both generally hate other people, so their personalities mesh well.
Viewers may wonder if this could lead to a larger-scale "Parks and Rec" reunion. Plaza joked, "There could be like a 'Parks and Rec'-'Game of Thrones' mash-up here, where April and Ron time travel into 'Game of Thrones' times, and then we're just riding those dragons around." They may only appear for a few seconds together to drink soda in the ad, but that's more than enough to get fans speculating about what April and Ron would be up to these days.
