Fans of the One Chicago TV franchise are used to seeing their favorite stars involved in highly dramatic storylines. One obvious example of that is the fact that Chicago Fire’s Taylor Kinney has been the focus of many sad storylines, including the cruel way the show’s 14th season began. As a result, it can be very interesting to see the franchise’s headliners involved in projects that have a much more positive tone.
In 2025, Chicago Med’s Jessy Schram stars in a Hallmark Christmas movie, which is something that she has done several times in the past. For a while it seemed like Chicago Fire’s Taylor Kinney had made a very similar career move. However, the surprising truth about Kinney’s holiday project has now been revealed to his many dedicated fans.
Taylor Kinney’s The Gift Exchange actually is a Google ad campaign
Over the last several years, it has seemed like more and more holiday-themed movies featuring recognizable actors are released. As a result, it didn’t feel shocking when it seemed like Taylor Kinney was set to star in a Christmas movie called The Gift EXchange due to the release of a poster that looked like it was made for Hallmark or Netflix.
On December 2, 2025, Kinney published the poster, that also featured the WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Garcia and Donna Kelce, on his Instagram page. Garcia also published the poster on her Instagram account.
After Kinney published the poster, there were many reactions from fans of the actor and the media. For example, a December 3 2025 Good Housekeeping article stated that The Gift EXchange “appears to be a new holiday movie,” which was a reasonable way to cover the news at the time. That article also quoted several fan responses in the comments of Kinney’s post that celebrated the supposed movie.
The next day, on December 4 2025, the fact that the whole thing was a clever ruse was exposed to the world. On that date, Kinney and Garcia both posted what appeared to be a trailer for The Gift EXchange on Instagram.
The fact that the posts featured the hashtag #sponsored was a great indication that something was going on. However, the fact that the trailer largely focused on Garcia’s character using Google image search to buy the perfect Christmas present for Kinney’s character gave away that the whole thing was actually an ad campaign.
If everything else about the trailer didn’t make it explicit enough that The Gift EXchange isn’t a real Christmas movie, the voiceover at the end of it went a step further. In the last seconds of the fake trailer, the following words could be heard. “Not actually a real movie.”
