There's this great guy named Ryan Gosling, who you may have heard of at some point. He’s an Oscar-nominated actor, my husband in another life, and now, the person who made a Toronto coffee shop owner’s dreams come true.
Gosling stopped by Joelle Murray's local cafe, Grinder Coffee, while he was in town for the Toronto International Film Festival promoting his latest movie, First Man. Murray had been working hard for the past week and a half to get Gosling's attention with Grinder Coffee's social media campaign, #ryanneedsgrinder. The viral marketing stunt featured not-at-all-creepy cardboard cutouts of the actor and a promise that he would get a very reasonable 15 percent off his purchase.
Originally, Murray had been campaigning for Idris Elba to stop by Grinder Coffee, but as Elba so often does (*cough* James Bond *cough*), he opted not to participate and crushed some hearts in the process. But Murray was determined to get a dreamboat celeb into her store, and she set her sights on Mr. Gosling. Ultimately, it was his mum who encouraged him to stop by and say hello, and Gosling made the 20-minute trek from TIFF to the cafe.
Obviously, Murray was thrilled—just look at the way she’s holding him! For a small business, this is incredible publicity. Let this be a lesson to us all, that when you get a chance to meet Ry Gos in person, you offer him some mildly discounted coffee and hang on for dear life.
