Tiny giraffes from DirecTV ads now for sale

Gregor the Russian billionaire might be the lead in DirecTV's "Opulence" and "Epic Win" ads from Grey New York, but we all know who the real star is—the miniature giraffe. And now you can reserve your own over at PetiteLapGiraffe.com, a brilliant site created for the (sadly, fake) Sokoblovsky Farms, "Russia's finest purveyor of Petite Lap Giraffes." You can watch a live cam of their "bull" giraffe, Vladimir, or look at photos of the cute little critters relaxing in the bubble bath. It's a great example of taking an awesome random detail from a TV campaign and running with it online. The site, concepted and built by Grey (with The Mill in New York handling special effects), offers lots of great tips on owning a tiny giraffe. "PLG's love being indoors in filtered air conditioning. If they can listen to music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov it is dream," notes the copy, which is all humorously written in broken English. And look, they're tidy: "PLG's are very clean. With training they will go in box like cats. Allergies never a problem." Well, I'm sold. Too bad I'm No. 14,870 on the waiting list, with an expected delivery date 21,000 years in the future. Opulence—eventually, I will has it. Hat tip to Kristen Heptinstall on Twitter.

Filed under Animals, DirecTV, Grey, Griner, TV
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DirecTV's opulence czar flexes his 'epic win'

Gregor the wealthy Russian and his miniature giraffe have returned for a follow-up to DirecTV's “Opulence” ad from last August. (The only thing missing is the awesome "More on The Facingbook" tag, which has been dumbed down to just "The Facebook.") This spot, again by Grey New York, seems just as concerned with physical fitness as with materialism. Heck, even the giraffe has a treadmill, though they still make time to watch a nature show on the portrait-framed flatscreen. In fact, I wish they focused more on the actual product and less on his disgusting workout regimen-by-proxy. When his biceps explode from the pressure, I hope he has the grace to get new, gold-plated ones.

Filed under DirecTV, Grey, Kiefaber
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DirecTV's robots make a mess of your home

This DirecTV spot from Grey New York, with the robots rampaging through a guy's house as he quietly fetches a bowl of ice cream, is visually awesome—and expertly highlights the product feature of watching and pausing live TV from room to room. Imagine how great it would be, though, if these cyborgs trashed the "Opulence, I has it" guy's house. You'd have gold busts, poker-playing dogs and mail-order brides flying everywhere. MJZ's Rupert Sanders, whose previous credits include the Halo 3 "Believe" spot, directed the new ad.

Filed under DirecTV, Grey, Nudd, TV
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DirecTV's 'Opulence' ad is rich in subtleties

Grey New York and director Tim Godsa filled this "Opulence" DirecTV spot with awesome subtle details, like the actual dogs playing poker (one of whom has an ace in his paw) and what appears to be a Van Gogh on an easel behind couch. And there's the miniature giraffe, of course, which is so cute we'll forgive the otherwise unpardonable sin of Twilight playing on his TV. The best part is the song clip at the end, though; it's a Russian folk song called "Korobeiniki," better known over here as the Tetris theme.

Filed under DirecTV, Grey, Kiefaber
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DirecTV uses only living people in new spot

The DirecTV commercial with Chris Farley (for which David Spade was reportedly paid $200,000) seems to have disappeared from the airwaves, and has been replaced by the Wayne's World 2 spot above with Dana Carvey and Kim Basinger, neither of whom perished years ago from drug abuse. I wouldn't classify this as a famous movie scene. Garth was always an annoying, second-rate character. Still, Basinger is pretty captivating, and overall it's an improvement over the Tommy Boy fiasco. Some people are hard to please, though—like Matthew Kelley, who says he finds the Basinger/Carvey ad "offensive because both their careers are dead."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Previously on AdFreak:
DirecTV's Chris Farley spot just feels wrong
Is DirecTV's 'Poltergeist' spot in bad taste?

Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Deutsch, DirecTV, Nudd, TV
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DirecTV's Chris Farley spot just feels wrong

I've generally been a fan of the DirecTV ads by Deutsch with the actors breaking character from classic TV and movie scenes to deliver the pitch. But the series has gotten dicey with the introduction of dead celebs into the mix. Last October, we had the spot with with Craig T. Nelson and Heather O'Rourke from Poltergeist, which was unfortunate, given that O'Rourke (who played Carol Anne) died tragically in 1988 at age 12. Now, a year later (hey, Halloween's coming up again), we get this Tommy Boy homage, with Chris Farley and David Spade. Farley, of course, died of a drug overdose in 1997. The whole dead-celebs thing is a gray area in advertising. Sometimes it seems less off-putting than other times. But you know there's an issue when an ad finishes and you hear audible groans from around the room. UPDATE: Asylum.com procured this statement from David Spade: "When DIRECT TV came to me and the Farley family with this idea about 'Tommy Boy,' we talked and thought it would be a cool way to remind people just how funny Chris was. It is a clever homage to my friend and a movie that we loved doing." Meanwhile, a rep for DirecTV tells Asylum: "We should look to Chris' family and friends for the ultimate opinion on this subject. They were involved from the beginning of this project and felt that the spot was a great to tribute to Chris."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Previously on AdFreak:
Is Direct TV's 'Poltergeist' spot in bad taste?
Ripley fights Alien Queen ... for the remote

Filed under Deutsch, DirecTV, Nudd, TV
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Deutsch whips out DirecTV's 'Coucha Sutra'

Various studies over the years have suggested that people enjoy watching TV almost as much as they like having sex. Thus, maybe the notion of a "Coucha Sutra" is long overdue. Deutsch L.A. has created just such an instruction manual for DirecTV in a print ad running in the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, which hits newsstands Tuesday. See the full Coucha Sutra ad here. "What is Coucha Sutra?" asks the press release. "Consider it Modern Man’s Kama Sutra. The ancient Indian spiritual text, composed in the 2nd Century AD and famous for its detailed illustrations of human sexual behavior, has been revolutionized by DirecTV to depict the multitude of 'positions' assumed in the most sensual and spiritual of places in our time … the couch."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Deutsch, DirecTV, Nudd, Television
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Scene suggestions for the next DirecTV ads

For a blog that hates DirecTV, Tirico Suave is sure offering the satellite-TV company a lot of help with its list of suggested scenes for the next round of DirecTV ads. Sure, they're all sarcastic ideas from mostly gruesome movies (A Clockwork Orange, Goodfellas, The Silence of the Lambs), but Tirico's argument is that after its Poltergeist spot, DirecTV can't be expected to display any taste whatsoever. A real suggestion might involve switching up the Deutsch campaign to something else before it's beaten totally into the ground.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Deutsch, DirecTV, Kiefaber, Television
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Is DirecTV's 'Poltergeist' spot in bad taste?

DirecTV's been celebrating memorable movies and TV shows in its ads for more than a year, getting Sigourney Weaver, Charlie Sheen, Pam Anderson and others to reprise classic roles and then break character to deliver a pitch. Some think the latest installment, a Halloween-timed spot with Craig T. Nelson and Heather O'Rourke from Poltergeist, is in bad taste, given that O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne, died tragically in 1988 at age 12. Check out the 37 comments on this SlashFilm item for a sense of the back-and-forth. Basically, some of the commenters feel it's creepy and exploitative to use O'Rourke's image for a marketing campaign. Others think Carol Anne is a classic character who shouldn't be totally off-limits. One commenter named Chris claims to be from Deutsch, the agency behind the ads; he says O'Rourke's mother approved the concept and thought the finished spot was "a wonderful tribute to her daughter." However you feel about the matter (I happen to think it's perfectly in line with DirecTV's established campaign and is about as non-gratuitous as you can get), you have to be thankful that SlashFilm's readers aren't the ones creating the ads. One of them, trying to be helpful, offers an even more offensive idea: "Don't you think [they] could have come up with something from Coach?"

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Controversy, Deutsch, DirecTV, Film, Nudd
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