Monday, January 2, 2012

DirecTV "Let Stray Animals Starve" Ad

Wow, what's PeTA going to say about this? I just saw an ad for DirecTV where they show how if you pay too much for your cable TV bill, you'll have all these bad things happen to you until you start taking in stray animals, and then they say: "Stop taking in stray animals!"

So, what I'd like to know is this: Why does DirecTV hate animals so much that they want the stray ones to starve and die in the streets? Oh, the (lack of) humanity! Wow, have stray animals destroyed all their satellite dishes and cost their company countless billions of dollars in maintenance costs, harming their reputation and bottom line? It's the only scenario I can come up with that would explain their seething hatred of and propagandizing for the rejection and wanton negligent murder of these helpless animals! (Right, PeTA?)

Now, I'm partly joking, and I love DirecTV, but this ad really does seem a bit mean-spirited about stray animals, and that can't be good for business, can it? But then again, maybe if PeTA bitches and moans about this ad, and more people like me make fun of it, they'll get lots more free advertising, and they won't have to pay for so much advertising for awhile. But on the other hand, lots of people love animals here in America, especially cats and dogs, and this ad makes DirecTV appear full of loathing for our furry friends, so I would think it's not a good idea. Plus, it's not really funny, which it ought to be, if you're going to take a chance at alienating a large portion of your potential target client demographic.

But maybe they think it's funny to make fun of people who have fallen on hard times who then turn to helping neglected, helpless cats and dogs to assuage their loneliness and depression. Yeah, screw those losers! Cool people let everyone die on the streets and just watch TV all the time! Anyone who helps their fellow creatures in need is a dork! And it serves them right to overpay for their cable TV bill! Ha, ha: Jerks! (<This is what this commercial says to me. And I make fun of PeTA a lot for their silly stuff, so you know I'm not the type to overreact to something like this. But it does seem like a bad idea, and while I see what they're trying to do here, I wouldn't have approved this spot for my company.)

Maybe their next ad in this campaign ought to have a DirecTV employee show up at an animal shelter, and after pretending that he was going to adopt a dog or cat to get into where the animals are, he could whip out a sub-machine gun and kill them all. Then, they could say: "DirecTV: We hate animals! Oh, and people with beards are losers! Up yours, ZZ Top!"

I cannot find this silly spot on the internet yet, but if you see this ad on TV, you're not likely to miss it; just look for the scraggly beard!

No wait: here it is (I just found it!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VObFc64OnEk&context=C333ed20ADOEgsToPDskJ0E9ehrUhF01PXwPPzGl_2