Gizmodo
The Pitch DirecTV's ingenious ad agency, Deutsch Inc., mods yet another cinematic classic, this time selecting a flick that's sure to delight the Gizmodo crowd: James Cameron's superb Aliens. Yes, that's the real Sigourney Weaver, made up to look 21 years younger and slotted into a similar-looking robot-arm apparatus. This time, though, no dirty mouth—the script elides her use of the B-word, instead cutting to a deliberately cheesy paean to a DirecTV deal (new subscribers may qualify to get the first four months free). The moment's all the funnier, of course, because Weaver—er, Ripley—is battling Mama Alien while praising a DBS service. Funny stuff, and the most geek-friendly of DirecTV's long-running "Fourth Wall" ad campaign since last year's Star Trek spot. But can these inventive ads fend off the specter of Verizon's FiOS and other triple-play providers?
Rip-Off Of Obviously, the whole point of this ad is that it's ripping off Cameron. I wonder what James thinks of his sci-fi masterpiece being modded in such a manner—and I wonder how much they had to pay Sigourney Weaver to reprise her Ripley role. I guess she needed some scratch after Happily N'Ever After flopped.
The Spin Contrary to some earlier ads in this campaign, which stressed DirecTV's picture quality and other specs, the accent here is on value. Aside from the pitch for the four-month intro offer, Weaver chats up DirecTV's vast array of channels—a menu that's only going to get bigger in the coming months, as the service adds several dozen high-def channels. In the 30-second version of the ad, Weaver also adds a gratuitous dig at cable, comparing the thrill of killing an alien to the joy of ditching Time Warner, or Comcast, or whoever has the monopoly in her neighborhood. But let's face it, the real point here is the wow factor—DirecTV still needs to break down the resistance of technophobes, who recall the mammoth satellite dishes (and shady satellite salesmen) of yore. Setting tongues wagging over the ads' cinematic wizardry makes newbies feel more confident that they're dealing with pros—as well as pros who understand the raised-in-the-'80s demographic that's now the sweet-spot for premium TV providers.
Counterpsin Big discounts are often a sign of semi-desperate circumstances, and that certainly seems to be the case here. Anyone who follows tech stocks knows that DirecTV's been having a hard time this year (down about 14 percent), largely because investors are increasingly skeptical of its ability to compete with the likes of Verizon's FiOS and other fiber services that can offer broadband-TV-phone bundles. That's forced DirecTV to focus on price in order to compete; note that there's no 1080i shout-outs in the campaign's recent entrants, unlike in the early days of Jessica Simpson's spokesmodeling.
Takeaway Trite as it might sound, DirecTV's at a crossroads. It's in the midst of being sold, from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to Liberty Media. That's probably good news for gearheads: News Corp. made a bollocks of its in-house DVR system, and all signs point to a reconciliation between TiVO and DirecTV under the new regime. DirecTV also has to play some tech catch-up; for example, though it'll be using MPEG-4 transmission for its new high-def channels, the older TiVO HR 10-250 DVR apparently won't be compatible. On top of that, will DirecTV keep having to slash prices in order to compete with the likes of Verizon and Comcast? Because right now, FiOS in particular seems to be eating DirecTV's lunch.
Hype-O-Meter 7.5 (out of 10). Another great ad in the Fourth Wall campaign, and all due to respect to Deutsch Inc.; a "making-of" series on YouTube would be most excellent. But you can also tell that this ad approach is getting a wee bit tired—just ask investors. DirecTV needs to give more thought to how it's gonna confront the emerging competition from fiber, or it'll fall back to niche status one of these days. Let's hope its rekindled relationship with TiVO is a step in the right direction.
Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.
Comments
Aliens...
best science fiction movie ever made...
lol thats awesome even though I won't ge getting directTV
Ugh, you're making my recent decision to ditch Comcast for DirectTV that much harder. I keep hearing arguments for and against...argh.
But basically I could get the NFL season pass and the premiere package for what I pay Comcast with HBO and HD on Comcast with this deal they're running. After the deal runs out I'm just paying the Season Pass price on top of the monthly, exactly the same, price.
Oh and taking the NFL Network off of Digital Comcast pissed me off enough to entertain the thought in the first place.
My problem with the bundles is also this:
Comcast does Internet Best
AT&T/Cingular does phone best
Maybe DirectTV does cable best.
I would never go back to AT&T DSL and now probably not Comcast cable. So how do the bundles help me?
Oh I'm in Chicago for those that want to weigh in on pricing differences elsewhere.
DirectTV is the worst... I need to reaquire signal at least once a day. Frequent drop outs. RCN was the provider of choice.
I live in Chicago in hi-rise bldg..
they are also airing a baywatch one with pam anderson (at least here on the east coast)
definitely not as original as alien
[www.youtube.com]
Out of all of these commercials, I actually got a small smile the first time I heard the "almost as good as when I got rid of Cable" line. It was clever.
I believe these spots are all CGI by a state of the art German (?) run company in Santa Monica. A spot was done on them sometime ago in the NYT and a video spot done as well on the NYT site. Wish I could remember the name of the company. They only need the actor for modeling purposes and they render the face real time using all their physical inflections and voice. No ping pong balls or grid lines are needed anymore and you get a real looking virtual actor at any age you like.
can we make susan sarandon cute again, like in RHPS?
im disgusted by the butchering of one of my favorite movies. i think its tasteless, desperate and not at all funny. im embarest for Sigourney Weaver, sad for James Cameron, and offended by dtv.
im cancelling my direct tv as soon as my contract is up. all it has to do is look like its gonna rain and i lose my signal. at least with cable i can watch the news if a tornado happens to come my way.
Can they fix it so it doesn't go out every time there's a storm?
Best movie ever.
I personally think that these ads are annoying as hell, not funny in the remote slightest capability, and are basically just a reminder that you are improving your chances of eye cancer for those 30 seconds.
I'd be happy if I never had to see another one of these "rip off the movie with actors saying dumb things for a random product" commercials for the rest of eternity.
It's dark here Ripley...I'm not what I used to be.
Do me a favor Ripley...pull the plug.
I could be reworked, but I'll never be top of the line again...I'd rather be nothing...
Do it for me, Ripley...
YEah, I think this commercial and the one with Charlie Sheen are done using Image Metrics software. Basically, the persons face is analyzed using state of the art image recognition software and then the face is matched to a 3D model that looks exactly like the real person. The end result is that the 3D model can then be inserted into any video scene via standard compositing techniques. So yes, Ripley's head is actually the state of the art in 3D animation.
[www.image-metrics.com]
@DashTheHand: +1
You nailed my sentiments exactly. I feel like my late-childhood are being raped every time I see one of these abominations.
I love these ads! I cant wait till they do a Gladiator or Star Wars one, if possible.
Having had DirecTV since '95, I will ditch them tomorrow for ATT Uverse. Even though I am a "premier" (sp?) customer, I have been looking for anything that wasn't Comcast. Uverse will give me IPTV and DSL. I get to dump the SBC landline, so I will actually save a buck or two. The primary reason for leaving is that I never got TiVo to go or sharing files between TiVo units or remote TiVo programming, and every time I pressed DirecTV on the issue I was told "late this year". When I found out that my HD TiVo was not capable of getting the additional HD channels to be added "late this year" and that I would have to go with their box which isn't a genuine TiVo, I figured that I was losing TiVo anyway and with a wired connection I wouldn't lose service during heavy rain. Anyone know of any uses for DirecTivo (1 series 2 and 1 HD-250) boxes once I disconnect?
I'm not sure whom these ads are supposed to appeal to. I'm a huge fan of Back to the Future and Aliens, both of which were modded for DirecTV advertising, and all the commercials did was annoy and anger me. Why would anyone think that I would somehow want to see these characters and scenes that I love and re-watch often used to sell a product? I was pretty indifferent to DirecTV before they started airing these ads. I currently have cable, but I definitely would've considered DirecTV down the road at a later date.
Not anymore...
@andrebasso: yup that's them
@Nutbastard: when was susan sarandon ever cute (buggy eyes and droopy boob)?
you might as well ask for the hot mindy cohn from Facts of Life too.
(I myself preferred Geri Jewell...yum -handicapable!!!)
@nutbastard:
Dont you mean When she was in The Hunger?
And Aliens best sci fi movie ever?
First Alien=horror
2nd Aliens=Action
3rd Aliens=teh suck
best sci fi movie ever?
I nominate Darkstar.
or for reals
Akira, Fantastic Planet, and
er uh, another little Ridley Scott flick, Bladerunner?
These ads mostly suck all the time...mostly
PS. @RDLDR1
Doing a Star Wars one is the most idiotic idea ever.
Oh Cameron will be outraged because he did not wanted to get any money on reruns, right?
Thanks for reminding me why I don't watch TV anymore.
@dfwguy: re: any uses for your disconnected DTV Tivos... you can shoot a message over to the tivocommunity.com that you have a couple of good units for sale or if you're not up to signing up for the forums try checking out tivolovers.com, an active community of Tivo lovers.
You may want to shoot an email,at the former, to the webmaster, megazone, and let him know you have a couple of units to unload.There have been a few blog posts detailing the troubles DTV subscribers have in getting the DTV-TiVo version of the receiver from customer service (if I recall there's a certain model number to ask for) and I'm sure there's a loving home that could use your soon-to-be-disconnected DTV TiVos.
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