Taylor Kinney’s The Gift Exchange actually is a Google ad campaign
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.
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.
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.