Jeff Bridges to play a human bridge in a new beer advert because his surname is Bridges

One of our favourite things about everyone’s favourite super-scurrilous weekly email newsletter Popbitch is its unerring and unswerving commitment to unearthing some of the finest examples of nominative determinism out there.

One of life’s simple pleasures, nominative determinism is the idea that people have a tendency to drift toward jobs and roles which reflect their names. Think of a firefighter named Les McBurney, or a tough tackling centre back named Mark de Man and you’ll be on the right lines.

It would seem that the internal advertising team at Heineken share our enthusiasm for the topic, given that their latest campaign for Amstel lager sees American actor Jeff Bridges taking up one of the more peculiar roles to date.

Jeff Bridges is playing… a bridge.

The rationale was simple. As Heineken brand director Nic Casby says, “When we thought about the most famous bridge who brings people together, there was only one bridge: Jeff Bridges.”

It’s the second time this year that the genial thespian has appeared in our living rooms with the intention of hawking cold beer: back in January, he reprised his role as The Dude — the protagonist of cult classic The Big Lebowski — in a spot for Stella Artois.