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Chris Farley (for which David Spade was reportedly paid $200,000) seems to have disappeared from the airwaves, and has been replaced by the Wayne's World 2 spot above with Dana Carvey and Kim Basinger, neither of whom perished years ago from drug abuse.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?

Published on November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (6)
Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Deutsch, DirecTV, Nudd, TV

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

Published on October 23, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (23)
Filed under Deutsch, DirecTV, Nudd, TV

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

Published on February 9, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under Deutsch, DirecTV, Nudd

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

Published on October 24, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Deutsch, DirecTV, Kiefaber

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

Published on October 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (8)
Filed under Controversy, Deutsch, DirecTV, Nudd