Ben Marshall’s solo career continues to grow.
Marshall, who makes up one third of the comedy troupe Please Don’t Destroy, is joining forces with the popular luggage company Away to promote its new soft-shell product line, Softside. The campaign, which kicked off with a video earlier this month, features numerous celebrities and influencers.
According to Kapono Chung, founder and partner of creative agency Combo and designer of the original Away luggage exterior, Marshall and the other talent—including comedian and Hacks star Meg Stalter, who appears in a promo with Marshall—were chosen because of their “soft side.”
“Everyone that we picked was very interesting and quirky and are loved for [being] themselves,” Chung explained. “At the end of the day, people want to relate to other people—they don’t want to relate to a product.”
Aside from Marshall and Stalter, other key Away collaborators include Succession star Alan Ruck, skateboarder Tyshawn Jones, and art critic Jerry Saltz. In the initial campaign video, the audience is privy to the talent’s amusing inner monologues.
Please Don’t Destroy—which is made up of Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy—first came to fruition in 2017 when the trio were students at NYU. The group joined Saturday Night Live as writers in 2021 for Season 47, and they also produce their own pre-taped shorts under the Please Don’t Destroy name for the show. In 2023, they wrote and starred in their feature film debut, Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain (produced by Judd Apatow), for Peacock.
The Away news comes shortly after Marshall was confirmed to guest star in Season 2 of Peacock’s hit series Poker Face, starring Natasha Lyonne. The SNL writer will be in good company—the stacked sophomore season is also slated to include Giancarlo Esposito, Katie Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, Gaby Hoffmann, Sherry Cola, Kevin Corrigan, and Kathrine Narducci.
While this may be Marshall’s first solo venture, it’s hardly his first rodeo in general. Just last month, Please Don’t Destroy partnered with Dunkin’ for a social media campaign.
The SNL writer is certainly having a packed year. In addition to all of this, Marshall was also recently nominated for his third Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series along with the rest of the series staff. So really, the Away campaign actually works out perfectly. If Marshall keeps up this busy schedule, he’ll definitely need a reliable suitcase.