Danny Trejo has a face made for commercials.
Ever since we saw his decapitated head on the back of a turtle in Breaking Bad, something told us this guy was gonna go places. Beyond his star-making Snickers BBDO Super Bowl spot a couple of years ago, he has now become the unofficial face of Sling TV, the pick-and-choose service for The Millennials that we still don’t really understand.
A new campaign by Society, the global media/digital network launched by IPG Mediabrands in February, plays on the simple fact that Trejo looks like a badass motherfucker to let all those old school cable brands know their time is up.
Here he is telling some bachelor party bros to chill the hell out.
And here he is showing his softer side to a young, sad caffeine fan.
See, media agencies can produce creative too!
The ads are running in both English and Spanish to attract as many of the young peoples as possible. As client CMO Glenn Eisen told Portada, “Danny was someone who could reach across the aisle; he was someone who was extraordinarily appealing to both markets, and we fell into it very serendipitously.”
He continued, “We have such an important marketing message to share, and with him, we got to break through the clutter. As cord cutting continues to accelerate, and you see defection from pay TV, you are going to see that this audience gets more mainstream than it is today, but for now, our audience is defined by their behavior.”
So, full disclosure: we have not been cable subscribers since 2004, excepting a three-month period in 2011 that lasted until we realized that day-after streaming gives you far better picture quality. (It really isn’t about the ads.)
We don’t know what the solution to all this chronic cord-cutting will be, but we don’t really feel like Sling is quite there yet. Also … Breaking Bad was so much better than Better Call Saul, and we say this having watched every episode of both shows.
CREDITS
Agency: Society
Client: Sling TV
EVP, Managing Director: Rob Bernstein
Chief Creative Officer: Nick Childs
Executive Creative Director: Roberto Alcazar
Executive Creative Director: Josh Greenspan
Associate Creative Director: Sarah Dennis-Browne
Art Director: Brooks Hess
Graphic Designer: Ilyssa Mooney
Copywriter: Fernando Diaz-Morlet
Copywriter: Courtney Harris
Campaign Producer: Rob Farber
Head of Production: Jeremy Mack
Executive Producer: Alicia Calderon
Group Account Director: Karen Uribe
Account Manager: Ricardo Delgado
Project Manager: Michelle Geller
Director of Business Affairs: Kathy Rottach
Production Company: Smuggler
Co-Founder: Brian Carmody
Executive Producer: Brian Carmody
Co-Founder: Patrick Milling
Executive Producer: Patrick Milling Smith
Director: Benji Weinstein
Executive Producer: Drew Santarsiero