180LA launched a new campaign for Virgin Mobile featuring Rick Astley.
While perhaps most familiar to modern audiences for the “Rickrolling” phenomenon, 180LA features the singer in a new broadcast spot highlighting Virgin Mobile’s data sharing plan. Entitled “Do It For The Data,” the 30-second data features a father whose family is eager to please in order to be awarded the data space he doles out as part of the plan. Their sycophantic gestures ratchet up as the spot goes on, ending with Astley popping out of a giant cake (apparently the dad is a big fan). There’s also a pair of online spots, one of which also features Astley going back on the lyrics to his biggest hit in order to earn a gig of data.
It seems a bit late to jump on the Rick Astley bandwagon, as the “Rickrolling” phenomenon has had a presence on the web now since 2007, and the online spot “The Negotiation” seems a bit like a first idea that the agency just decided to roll with, rather than pushing for something further. (Also: Why doesn’t Astley have his own data plan?) Still, fans of eighties cheesiness will get a kick out of Astley’s appearance and it works to highlight the ridiculousness of the father’s data dictatorship.