Milana Vayntrub has spoken out earlier than concerning the on-line harassment she has confronted for her portrayal of “Lily Adams,” a retailer supervisor in AT&T advertisements.
However in a New York Occasions story in the present day, she revealed she acquired encouragement and help from an unlikely peer – Stephanie Courtney, who performs the character “Flo” in advertisements for Progressive Insurance coverage.
Courtney contacted Vayntrub by cellphone when the net abuse was at its worse. Courtney was empathetic, and Vayntrub recalled that Courtney was an excellent listener. Speaking to her peer made Vayntrub really feel “like there have been folks on my staff,” she stated within the Occasions story.
In August of 2020, Vayntrub posted an Instagram livestream asking that the net harassment in opposition to her cease.
Vayntrub emotionally mentioned how outdated photographs of her have been manipulated into memes that generate lewd and vile responses.
“Possibly it simply has to do with being an individual on the web, or perhaps it’s particular to being a lady on the web,” Vayntrub stated in her livestream. “However all of those feedback… it hurts my emotions. I’m hurting and it’s mentioning, like, loads of emotions of sexual assault. I’m similar to, you realize, strolling my canine and getting messages from individuals who have distorted my photos to get likes on their accounts.”
Vayntrub, who was the AT&T spokesman from 2013 to 2016, returned in 2020 with a brand new set of commercials touting working from residence and video chatting with iPhones and 5G.
AT&T issued a press release backing Vayntrub in 2020.
“We won’t tolerate the inappropriate feedback and harassment of Milana Vayntrub, the gifted actor that portrays Lily in our advertisements. We have now disabled or deleted these feedback on our social content material that features Lily and we are going to proceed to struggle to help her and our values, which respect and respect all ladies.”
