Milana Vayntrub, known for portraying helpful and cheerful AT&T employee Lily in the company's commercials, is recalling how a fellow advertisement icon helped her amid an onslaught of online sexual harassment during the pandemic.
In a new profile about Vayntrub published in the New York Times on Thursday, the actress reflected on the highs and lows of portraying Lily on a national platform. After appearing in her first commercial for the brand as a 26-year-old in 2013, Vayntrub soon became one of the most recognizable faces on TV until her departure from the role in 2017.
Amid the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Werewolves Within star and a colleague reached out to AT&T to pitch reviving Lily – who would be "working from home," like the rest of the world. The company greenlit the idea, and Vayntrub herself directed the spots.
However, a few months after the actress made her way back to the small screen, Internet users began calling her "Mommy Milkers," referring to her chest. The company's social media pages would soon be spammed with everything from milk emojis to lewd, inappropriate comments, and some websites even promised access to non-existent pornographic videos.
Though Vayntrub told the outlet that "the Internet felt like everything" during the isolating times of COVID-19, she eventually found an ally in another recognizable commercial character: Stephanie Courtney, who famously portrays Flo in the Progressive commercials.
Courtney reached out to Vayntrub during the height of her social media harassment, lending an empathetic ear.
Despite her negative experience with a corner of the Internet during the pandemic, Vayntrub went on to tell the outlet that the pros of being thrust into the national spotlight "100 percent" outweighed the cons.
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