Flo From Progressive And AT&T's Lily Once Joined Forces To Combat Creeps Online
When Milana Vayntrub first landed the role of Lily, AT&T's friendly and quippy commercial mascot, in 2013, she had no way of predicting the hailstorm of harassment she'd be subjected to seven years later during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nor could she have expected the bond she would later forge with fellow brand mascot, Flo from Progressive.
Whether it was quarantine stir-craziness or the internet's general lean toward the perverse, Vayntrub's role in these seemingly innocuous AT&T commercials became the subject of lewd sexualization in the middle of 2020. A tidal wave of inappropriate nicknames, crass comment sections, and websites offering non-existent pornographic material of Vayntrub followed.
In a December 2023 interview with The New York Times, Vayntrub described the harassment she and her employer had to endure. Vayntrub also explained how Stephanie Courtney, the red-lipped, flippy-bobbed actor who plays Flo in Progressive's long-running ad campaign, helped her through that arduous time.
Stephanie Courtney reached out to Milana Vayntrub to offer her support in 2020
The vulgar campaign to sexualize AT&T's Lily character began with users commenting on the telecommunication company's social media platforms, nicknaming Lily "Mommy Milkers" in reference to actor Milana Vayntrub's chest. Amidst the countless derogatory and hypersexual comments against Vayntrub, other commenters began spamming AT&T's posts with equally unsettling emojis of glasses of milk.
Eventually, this harassment poured over into Vayntrub's personal life, with many harassers sending similar messages to the actor's personal accounts. The stress of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic only worsened the situation. "Our real world was so small that the internet felt like everything," Vayntrub told the Times.
And in that small world, an allegiance was formed between Vayntrub and Stephanie Courtney. Courtney, who debuted as Flo from Progressive in 2008, reached out to her colleague directly to offer her support and an understanding ear. Vayntrub recalled that Courtney was a kind, empathetic listener. The actor and commercial director told the Times that Courtney's support made her "feel like there were people on my team."
Milana Vayntrub found a new way to protect herself against unwanted harassment
Flo from Progressive wasn't the only one on Milana Vayntrub's team. AT&T occasionally responded to some of the more crude comments posted to its social media accounts and released a statement in August 2020 condemning its employee's harassers. The company later disabled comments on content featuring Lily altogether, writing in its statement, "We will continue to fight to support [Vayntrub] and our values, which appreciate and respect all women" (via PR Week).
After the initial Lily ad campaign ended in 2017, Vayntrub transitioned from commercial actor to commercial director. When the character was reprised to reflect the pandemic-related times of 2020, Vayntrub served as the campaign director in addition to her role as Lily. Luckily, this allowed Vayntrub to find new ways to protect herself against unwanted, leering eyes: opting not to show her full body in commercials anymore.
Vayntrub addressed this subtle change on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing, "Been getting a lot of 'why are they placing her body like that in those ads?' Well, I direct the ads. I place myself like that. And it's because of the thousands of unwelcome comments I receive about my body. You've lost the privilege of looking at it until I feel safe again." Still, the actor has no regrets. When asked by The New York Times if her experience as Lily outweighed the unintended drawbacks, Vayntrub replied, "One hundred percent."