Grey New York launched a new campaign for DirecTV, mocking the merger of two fictional cable companies in a pair of broadcast spots starring Jeffrey Tambor, Fred Willard, Jennifer Coolidge and John Michael Higgins.
“Cable Corp Merges with CableWorld” opens with Tambor saying, “We all know that DirecTV is better at this whole TV thing so to beat them we’re going to get bigger, we’re going to merge with CableWorld.” His incredulous employees can’t believe the news, offering up a litany of reasons why “They’re the worst,” including the fact that they smell. The punchline is that Willard is standing behind their boss with a cake reading “Welcome to the CableWorld family.”
The spot, directed by Hungry Man’s Bryan Buckley, fails to live up to its big name pedigree, but is still a fairly entertaining dig at big cable companies. It’s also a welcome change of pace from Grey New York’s ubiquitous campaign for the brand which started with “Super Creepy Rob Lowe” and “Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe” over a year ago and more recently has employed NFL stars past and present.
The first spot begins airing today, with a follow-up, “Big Idea” (featured below) making its broadcast debut later this month. It’s worth noting that the campaign follows both Charter’s decision to purchase Time Warner Cable and DirecTV’s own acquisition by AT&T.