So not only you and your family, but also innocent men wrongly convicted who have finally won their release from prison, are being victimized here! And it's all your fault for not getting DirecTV, so even if you secretly wanted your family killed and your home destroyed for the insurance money anyway, you'll still feel guilty knowing it was your fault that this innocent man is being persecuted and wrongly convicted again! And additionally, now that they've run this ad so everyone knows about this threat, home insurers will refuse to cover damage to homes which choose not to subscribe to DirecTV, because everyone now knows this will get your house destroyed, so you knowingly acted in an irresponsible manner which got your house blown up, so it's really your fault after all, so they're not liable.
Okay, I love DirecTV, and I definitely think their television service is by far the best available. But that's exactly why this ad campaign is so unnecessary and counter-productive. (Or, at least, I think it is.) Since they're definitely the best, they don't need to resort to underhanded scare tactics to get people's business. Now, I know that these ads are intended as a joke; it's just that they're not really all that funny as presented. They would make a wonderful Saturday Night Live skit as a joke on DirecTV's advertising, but as an actual commercial (or entire campaign, actually) for DirecTV, they rather seem like scare-tactic propaganda. The problem is, they look like a veiled threat, don't they? It's like DirecTV is "offering" a Mafia-style protection racket whereby if you get their TV service, you'll be fine, but if you don't: Bam!: Unfortunate events may befall you and your family. See what I mean here? It makes a good joke ad, but not so much a good real ad. (Plus, some of these ads appear to be insulting all kinds of different people as well, don't you think?)
So this ad looks like they're threatening that if you don't get DirecTV, someone will blow up your house. Hilarious, right? It might be if it wasn't a real ad, but as a real ad, it seems like a threat, and in this terrorism-filled world we're currently living, veiled threats are not all that welcome. Or at least, they're not welcome to me! Again, if it's a joke, that's another matter, but a real ad can't be completely a joke, or else it's not selling anything, and for these ads to have any efficacy whatsoever, there has to be at least "a kernel of truth" in the claims. And in this case, if there is even the remotest "kernel of truth", then that makes this spot a veiled threat, and I don't like that kind of thing in real ads. That's why when I write about an ad being like that sort of horrible unintended consequences thing, it's always as a joke ad skit thing, and not as a real commercial for an actual product. (Watch me get embarrassed because I have done this for real as a proposed ad on this blog, and forgotten about it. But I don't believe I have, as I have a kind of code for writing and strategizing advertising, and it usually avoids dishonesty or veiled {or direct} threats.)
And the point is, it's funny to do this sort of thing as a joke ad because it's an ill-advised manner in which to make a real advertisement for a real product, because it makes the product look bad, and the company look like thugs and bullies. And that's funny because it's so wrong-headed. See what I mean? But that is also the very same reason that it does not make for a very good real ad for a real product.
So again, since DirecTV has by far the very bestest TV service available, they don't need to make ads like this. All they have to do is tell us about their product, and preferably tell us about good things we'll get out of using it, rather than the horrible misfortune that will befall us if we don't. Right? And then they appear to be a benevolent entity, rather than a threatening underworld mob. See what I mean?
Anyway, here's the terrorist-attack-threatening spot:
