{"id":571812,"date":"2026-04-08T13:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571812\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T13:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:08:14","slug":"voice-actor-says-john-krasinski-is-single-handedly-responsible-for-changing-how-every-tv-commercial-sounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571812\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice actor says John Krasinski is single-handedly responsible for changing how every TV commercial sounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

It turns out \u201cthe voice of a generation<\/a>\u201d isn\u2019t just a metaphor. Different generations have different ways of speaking, and nowhere is it more obvious than in our television<\/a>, commercials<\/a>, and other pop culture.<\/p>\n

Even more interestingly, the way people talk in these cultural artifacts sometimes says more about culture in general than the way real people actually speak. For example, the classic \u201cold-timey\u201d accent you hear in films and radio from the early 1900s\u2014called Good American Speech or the Transatlantic accent<\/a>\u2014wasn\u2019t exactly a reflection of how real people talked. It was adopted by actors to sound more refined and elite, but it\u2019s how many of us often remember the period sounding.<\/p>\n

So, too, do modern Millennials have their own distinct voice. And one voice artist says it\u2019s all Jim Halpert\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

The origins of \u201cMillennial speak\u201d<\/p>\n

Voice artist Tawny Platis has lent her vocal talents<\/a> to Hulu, Warner Brothers, Disney+, and many more. She also creates content on YouTube and recently took to the platform to share a fascinating bit of history from her unique industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim from The Office is responsible for the Millennial voice,\u201d she proclaims.<\/p>\n

In order to explain why actor John Krasinski is the reason \u201cMillennials talk like that,\u201d she takes us back to the popular TV commercials of our youth. Brands like Macy\u2019s and Revlon would feature voiceover actors with a bright, cheery, in-your-face \u201ccommercial\u201d voice.<\/p>\n

Platis performs them perfectly in her video because, she says, she actually starred in many commercials just like these.<\/p>\n

But before Krasinski made it big with his role on The Office, he was a prominent voice actor for brands like Verizon and Blackberry. In those commercials, many of which aired in the early 2000s (when Millennials were coming of age), he was famous for his extraordinarily casual, conversational tone. Think his laid-back Jim Halpert vibe. It\u2019s a stark contrast to the way commercials were performed in the \u201990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was basically just like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m just a guy. I\u2019m not really an actor. \u2026 You can trust me. It\u2019s like you\u2019re talking to a friend,\u201d Platis says.<\/p>\n

Platis says that for years, until very recently, almost every audition and job she went out for was seeking a \u201cconversational read\u201d exactly like Krasinski\u2019s performances. They became genre-defining.<\/p>\n

Hallmarks of Millennial Voice explained<\/p>\n

Platis isn\u2019t the first person to identify this distinct way of speaking. For years, \u201cMillennial speak\u201d has been examined (and sometimes maligned) in popular media.<\/p>\n

In 2016, NPR<\/a> wrote about Millennials love of tacking on \u201cI feel like,\u201d to their thoughts as a way of making a point casually and avoiding confrontation. Millennials are also famous for vocal fry, which the University of Melbourne<\/a> describes as \u201cthe creaky voice they often do at the end of sentences that makes them sound eternally bored, cool and relaxed, depending on the listener.\u201d<\/p>\n

The style of speaking reflected a powerful move away from anything that felt cheesy, artificial, or overly formal.<\/p>\n

For example, remember the \u201cmovie trailer voice\u201d guy? Movie trailers don\u2019t use those big, over-the-top narrators with deep gravitas anymore, preferring to let the footage and music speak for itself. This is partly due to the death of legendary voiceover man Don LaFontaine, but the movie trailer voiceover was also becoming too cliche and predictable for the Millennial audience.<\/p>\n

Krasinski, who\u2019s naturally likable and \u201ccool,\u201d was the perfect person to bring all of this to life in his super chill but still-friendly way of speaking. It was only furthered cemented by the huge popularity of his character on The Office.<\/p>\n

Something changed in the last four years<\/p>\n

Platis goes on to say that the Golden Age of Millennial Voice has come and gone, and Gen Zers are taking center stage in the voiceover world.<\/p>\n

She describes Gen Z voice as detached and apathetic, \u201clike you\u2019re talking to someone without looking up from your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s what all the brands want now.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Platis says that the Gen Z voice more closely resembles the sarcasm and unbothered-ness of Gen X\u2014or, their parents.<\/p>\n

In other words, it all comes back around. No matter what generation you come from, it\u2019s all but certain that the next one will want to do things their own way. It can hurt to feel like pop culture is leaving you behind, but it\u2019s a necessary process<\/a> for young people to form their own identities as they take a leading role in the world.<\/p>\n

As far as Millennials go, though, that trademarked Jim Halpert voice will never go out of style.<\/p>\n

The post Voice actor says John Krasinski is single-handedly responsible for changing how every TV commercial sounds<\/a> appeared first on Upworthy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It turns out \u201cthe voice of a generation\u201d isn\u2019t just a metaphor. Different generations have different ways of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,44007,251927,88,251924,48674,6069,251926,251928,251925],"class_list":{"0":"post-571812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-commercials","10":"tag-distinct-voice","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jim-halpert","13":"tag-john-krasinski","14":"tag-millennials","15":"tag-vocal-talents","16":"tag-voice-artist","17":"tag-voiceover-artist"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}