DirecTV has been clobbering Comcast in recent months thanks to an unusual ad campaign that features actor Rob Lowe touting several claims about the advantages of satellite TV compared to cable, who is represented by one of Lowe’s alter egos.
Some of the doppelgangers include “peaked in high school,” “bad decision making,” and “creepy” Rob Lowe. The ads were mildly amusing, but it was the claims made regarding DirecTV vs. cable that had Comcast up in arms.
The cable giant, whose merger with Time-Warner is currently under review, complained to the National Advertising Division (NAD), which is affiliated with the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The NAD adjudicates these kinds of ad disputes and called out DirecTV for basically lying about its advantages over cable.
Complaints from Comcast have led an industry trade group to recommend DirecTV pull a bizarre series of commercials featuring actor Rob Lowe.
The ads — which featured alter-egos of the actor who had cable while a smooth-talking, sharply dressed Lowe urged people to switch to satellite — have been discontinued. DirecTV says it did not pull them. Rather, they had already planned to start a new campaign during the second quarter.
DirecTV said in a statement to AdAge that the Lowe ads were scheduled to be replaced with spots showing Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition cover model Hannah Davis and a talking, singing horse. The new commercials began airing during the Final Four.
“The Rob Lowe spots were always scheduled to end at the end of Q1,” said the satellite provider, adding “We definitely reserve the right to bring back the Rob Lowe campaign, either in its current form or with new spots … It has been extremely successful for the brand.”
The National Advertising Division (NAD), which is affiliated with the Council of Better Business Bureaus, argued late Wednesday that DirecTV pull the ads because the following claims made by Lowe were mostly incorrect:
With DirecTV you get 99% signal reliability
With DirecTV you get 99.9% signal reliability
With DirecTV you get 1080p picture quality and Dolby 5.1. The industry’s best picture quality and sound
Up to 1080p picture quality
DirecTV is #1 in customer satisfaction over all cable TV providers
DirecTV is ranked higher than cable for over 10 years
DirecTV is the undisputed leader in sports which means you can watch all the games you want
When it comes to sports, with DirecTV, you can have them all“The National Advertising Division has recommended that DirecTV, LLC, discontinue certain advertising claims made in a series of television commercials that feature actor Rob Lowe and one of several odd or awkward alter-ego characters,” the group said in a statement.
The trade group agreed only with DirecTV on claims based on signal reliability and 1080p picture quality. NAD’s ruling has no legal standing, but the satellite provider has vowed to repeal.
I can testify for the plaintiff in the case of signal reliability. Not only is it outrageously wrong, but the customer service rep I talked to when I signed up for DirecTV actually told me that if there are outages, they never last more than a few minutes.
Every summer when there’s a thunderstorm, we can lose the signal up to 45 minutes, depending on how big the storm system is. Even without a thunderstorm, a simple rain shower can cause a loss of signal for 5-10 minutes.
As far as customer service overall, I’d give them a C+. Comcast, to which I subscribed for many years before I converted to satellite, was no worse, except they took a little longer to come out for service calls. Picture and sound quality on satellite are far superior to Comcast so I really don’t have much to complain about.
In a statement, DirecTV tried to brush off the criticisms, saying: “The various Rob Lowe advertisements are so outlandish and exaggerated that no reasonable consumer would believe that the statements being made by the alter ego characters are comparative or need to be substantiated.”
This is true, as far as it goes. But when you make claims that can’t be substantiated or are outright incorrect, the company should be slapped down.
DirecTV’s new ad campaign is idiotic and embarrassing:
Bring back “scrawny arms” Rob Lowe who angered the group, the International Paruresis Association (IPA):
The campaign previously made headlines when a group called the International Paruresis Association (IPA) railed against “scrawny arms” Rob Lowe being unable to pee in public. Paruresis is also known as “shy bladder” and affects around 200 million people around the world, IPA claims.
“In this particular case the portrayal is making it look ridiculous, that this guy is a loser for having a problem,” group CEO Steve Soifer told the Associated Press. “What if he didn’t have a leg or an arm?” he continued. “Are you going to make fun of them?”
If it would sell subscriptions to DirecTV, you can bet they’d make fun of them.
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