VB&P Escapes Cable in New Playstation Vue Spot

Venables Bell & Partners launched its first work for the Playstation Vue with the dystopian 60-second spot “Escape.”

The ad, directed by Park Pictures’ Lance Accord takes aim at a commonly-hated target: cable companies. “Remain in your home to hear an exciting bundle offer,” blares from loudspeakers at the beginning of the spot, the first of many jabs that seemed aimed at one universally loathed cable company in particular. As the Coaxial Corp vans drive up to his house to demand he renew his contract, one young man has had enough and makes a run for it. Right as it seems he’s about to be apprehended, a woman lifts a hatch and helps him escape to freedom, passing him a PS4 controller as the voiceover intones “Better TV starts now,” before the ad concludes with the “Game the System” tagline. While the dystopian approach of the ad is hardly new (Deutsch’s “Breakfast Defectors” spot for Taco Bell last year comes to mind), it finds a more fitting target than most here, while highlighting the supposedly game-changing nature of the serive, which is sure to appeal to cord-cutters. It also comes as a fairly natural evolution from Johannes Leonardo’s previous sci-fi themed effort for the brand.