Ryan Reynolds uses Winnie the Pooh in mobile phone ad as AA Milne character joins public domain

Beloved children’s character became part of public domain on 1 January

Ryan Reynolds used Winnie the Pooh in an advert for his mobile phone company as the beloved children’s character entered the public domain.

On 1 January, AA Milne’s bumbling bear was made public after the copyright on the book, initially issued in 1926, expired.

With Winnie the Pooh now being available for use without permission of the author’s estate, Reynolds decided to co-opt the character in an advert for Mint Mobile, which he partially owns.

“So yesterday was public domain day, it’s the day where classic works enter the public domain,” the Deadpool star explained in a video shared on social media.

“This year the original Winnie the Pooh becomes public domain. So I think you can see where this is going and I expect that we’ll be hearing from a certain mouse about this Pooh very, very soon.”

The clip then showed a book in the style of EH Shepard’s illustrations titled “Winnie the Screwed”, in which Pooh struggled with being overcharged on his phone bill, only to get a better deal from Reynolds’ company.

“Took some creative liberties but it sticks pretty close to the source material,” Reynolds joked. “Just added @MintMobile and changed ‘honey’ to ‘money’ really…”