Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ Video Gets Completely Butchered in T-Mobile’s Humorous Super Bowl Ad

In the 30-second ad titled "Restricted Bling," Drake is filming his "Hotline Bling" music video while wearing everyone's favorite chunky grey turtleneck sweater and showing off his meme-worthy dance moves.

The spot, created by Publicis Seattle, opens on Drake dancing inside a colorful cube. As he sings, "You used to call me on my cell phone," a few executives from unnamed wireless carriers abruptly stop him to suggest a few revisions to the song.

The carriers ask him to work in the fact that streaming music will rack up tons of data—illustrating how other phone companies restrict wireless plans.

Drake is a trooper, though, and delightfully mocks the requested changes, saying the changes "don't ruin the song at all." 

This isn't the first time T-Mobile has tapped a big celebrity to star in its game-day ad. Last year the brand tapped Kim Kardashian to humorously mock herself and address the important issue of saving your data. Publicis Seattle worked on the Kardashian spot as well. The brand has also featured names like Tim Tebow, Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman in its commercials.

The new spot was directed by Paul Hunter of Pretty Bird and edited by Kyle Brown and Sean LaGrange of Arcade Edit. 

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

CREDITS

Agency: Publicis Seattle

Client: T-Mobile Super Bowl

Dir. of integrated production: Corey Bartha

Head of Broadcast: Adam Oliver

Producer: Ryan Shanholtzer

Chief creative officer: Andrew Christou

Executive creative director: Jason Lucas

Creative director: Earl Wallace IV

Sr. copywriter:  Dan Peterson

Group account dir: Adam Thomason

Head of business affairs: Deb Groth

Traffic mgr: Tina Mulcahy

Production Company: Prettybird

Director: Paul Hunter

Co-Founder: Kerstin Emhoff

Vice-President/Executive Producer: Ali Brown

Head of Production: Tracy Hauser

Line Producer: William Green

Editorial Co:  Arcade Edit – LA

Editor: Kyle Brown

Asst. Editor: Andy Trecki

Managing Partner: Damien Stevens

Executive Producer: Nicole Visram

Sr. Producer: Sasha Grubar

Telecine: CO3 – LA

Colorist:  Dave Hussey

Executive Producer: Ashley McKim + Rhubie Jovanov

Producer: Liza Kerlin

Online & VFX:  Method

Managing Director:            

Creative Directors/Partners:        

Executive Producer: Robert Owens        

Sr. Producer: Paula S. Jimenez             

Lead Flame: Wensen Ho                        

2D artists:  Aaron Neitz + Justin Monnier          

Audio Post Co: Eleven

Mixer/Sound Designer: Jeff Payne

Assistant: AJ Murillo

Exec Producer: Suzanne Hollingshead

Producer: Melissa Elston

Entertainment Marketing Consultant: Platinum Rye Entertainment

Founder: Ryan Schinman

Dir. of Talent Procurement: Marissa Klaff

Music:

Licensed Track: ‘Hotline Bling’ by Drake

Music Licensing: Platinum Rye Entertainment

Sr. Dir. of Music Supervision + Licensing: Susan Schwartz

Talent:

OCP: Jerry Lambert

OCP: Brian Husky

OCP: Alison Martin

OCP: Drake

Announcer:  Jeff Johnson

Agent: Mike Karr / SBV LA