DirecTV Ditches Rob Lowe for Hannah Davis and a Horse in Shamelessly Silly New Ads
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DirecTV doesn’t want you to have to look at ugly cable wires and boxes. So, it’s putting Hannah Davis on your screen instead (and saying goodbye to Rob Lowe).
Sports Illustrated’s 2015 Swimsuit Issue cover girl anchors two new spots for the satellite TV service from Grey New York. In the first ad, she rides a white horse down a tropical beach in a scene vaguely reminiscent of Isaiah Mustafa for Old Spice, offering an otherwise standard pitch for the wireless satellite service. In the second, she’s just sitting next to her ride.
There’s a twist in both, though, and it’s consistent with the brand’s history of cranking out solid comedy.
The work replaces DirecTV’s long-running Rob Lowe (and his lesser versions) campaign, which was dinged Tuesday by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus for making unsubstantiated comparative claims about cable. (The fact that Comcast worked to ruin everyone’s fun is another good reason for consumers to hate that company—even if some of the DirecTV ads weren’t the nicest.)
Davis also appeared as a cat lady in a DirecTV print ad in the S.I. Swimsuit Issue. But—spoiler alerts ahead—the TV campaign hits the holy trinity of advertising clichés: run-of-the-mill sex appeal, a funny talking animal and a visual play on words.
It’s worth noting, though, that followed to its logical conclusion, the joke is basically saying DirecTV is a horse.
