After years of being treated like she was invisible, it occurred to Mindy Kaling that she might actually be invisible. With that realization came a sense of freedom The Mindy Project actress, 35, had never known.
That's the premise of Nationwide's hilarious new Super Bowl XLIX commercial. A 29-second sneak peek debuted Thursday, and it shows Kaling doing whatever the heck she wants without fear of repercussion. Whether she's sunbathing nude in New York City's Central Park, stealing fries off a stranger's plate at an outdoor café or eating ice cream right out the carton at her supermarket, she embraces her invisibility.
The only problem? "Mindy was actually not invisible," the narrator reveals.
The rest of the ad debuts during the second quarter of Super Bowl XLIX.
"My writers and I had so much fun brainstorming ideas for this ad because it was all about wish fulfillment," she said on ABC's Good Morning America. The Why Not Me? author then joked, "All of us, even beautiful, young Hollywood celebrities like me, have been in situations where we feel invisible."
Kaling hasn't publicly revealed whether she'll be rooting for the New England Patriots or the Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 1, but it's likely the Cambridge, Mass., native will cheer for the former NFL team.
As Kaling explained on TBS' Conan last year, "I find [Boston accents] very sexy, maybe because of all those Ben Affleck movies where it's about bank robbers just trying to make money to support their families, and they don't want to do it but they have to. I find that very appealing because they're like, 'You leave Charlestown, you never come back. Rob a bank with me, because we are brothers.' [They're] often portrayed as these very gorgeous, six-pack abs, blue-collar dudes. It just seems like they say something and it sounds halfway smart. You're like, 'You are a brilliant genius...Albert Einstein!'"
Kickoff for Super Bowl XLIX is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live Feb. 1 on NBC.
Idina Menzel will sing the National Anthem, and John Legend will sing "America the Beautiful." Backed by Lenny Kravitz on guitar, Katy Perry will perform a medley of her No. 1 hits during the halftime show.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)