Oct. 20, 2026
Snap, the maker of Snapchat and Specs, just pulled off one of the biggest business magic tricks ever. The company essentially got Marvel’s Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (played by Robert Downey Jr.), the first mainstream movie character to popularize the idea of augmented reality (AR) glasses, to endorse their real-world Specs AR glasses.
The company revealed the endorsement today through a series of short video clips showing Downey Jr. wearing Specs and using the device’s various AR functions. Snap is calling Downey Jr. its Chief Customer Experience Officer, a fancy title that really just seems to mean he gets to try out all the cool things the smartglasses can do. Of course, the endorsement isn’t from Marvel Studios or their character, but since Tony Stark is Downey Jr.’s most famous character, the movie-based AR reference will be obvious to most Marvel fans. What makes this an even more brilliant marketing masterstroke by Snap is that it comes just one month before the release of Avengers: Doomsday, on Dec. 18, where Downey Jr. will play the lead role as a different character in the franchise he helped make the highest-grossing of all time.
During one of the new Specs clips, Downey Jr. is shown discarding a suitcase full of AI glasses, a clear reference to Meta’s Ray-Ban smartglasses, offered by Mark Zuckerberg, a longtime rival of Snap founder Evan Spiegel after he turned down Zuck’s offer to buy Snap for $3 billion back in 2013. Now that Meta’s AI smartglasses have been tagged as “creep glasses” by some, Snap’s primary mission is to normalize smartglasses and possibly make them seem cool again to the naysayers. Enter: Tony Stark, the only Marvel Cinematic Universe character pretty much everyone agrees is universally cool (albeit insufferable to his onscreen teammates).
Another reason Snap’s timing is clever is that, if the rumors are true, Marvel will release the final Avengers: Doomsday trailer this Friday, just days after Snap’s big Specs promotion led by the Marvel star. Spiegel pulling out all the stops to land the biggest AR icon ever is smart because Specs faces an uphill battle. The device is priced at $2,195 (essentially, the price of a laptop), and is being released at the same time as Apple’s new folding iPhone Duo, which sells for $1,999.
All of this comes during a time of high unemployment for new college grads in the U.S., persistent price inflation, and an uncertain economy receiving monthly tremors from AI-related disruptions. And for the families that are financially stable and looking for a stocking stuffer this holiday season, picking an expensive pair of unproven AR smartglasses over the new iPhone Duo will be a hard sell for most.
Nevertheless, Snap banking on the notion that Marvel fans will be excited about giving themselves Tony Stark/Iron Man-like powers is a bet most mobile device makers would make. The cost of that bet? At least one source claims that Downey will be paid $100 million to promote Snap’s products (a figure neither Snap nor Downey has confirmed). Snap’s stock price plummeted by about 17% following the announcement of Specs on June 16. And that’s after several years of decline and stagnant movement. Since then, the stock has rebounded to $6.41.
Can the star power of Marvel’s biggest star help make Snap’s Specs a mainstream competitor to the smartphone? Whatever happens with Specs sales in the coming months, this marketing move by Snap should be considered one of its milestone wins.
Cover: Robert Downey Jr. in Snap Specs via Snap
