Sony’s live TV streaming service, PS Vue, is ending. But don’t blame the ads, because they were great. Let’s see what PS Vue advertising got right that so many ads get so wrong.
One night as I was dozing off in front of the TV, a commercial got my attention. Not for the usual reasons—because it was loud and stupid and made me want to throw something—but because it was exactly the opposite.
I heard a female voice, soft and clear. It sounded calm yet earnest. I heard the words “PlayStation Vue” and looked at the TV.
On screen was a TV guide interface. The voice was narrating a tutorial. As I heard about various PS Vue features, I saw them in action with my own two eyes.
Thirty seconds later, I had learned what PS Vue is, what it looks like, how it works, and some of the cool things it can do.
Below: A product-focused TV commercial for PS Vue. Note how informative and non-annoying it is.
The ad ended and was replaced by a loud and stupid commercial for car insurance or some prescription medication with a ridiculous consonant-heavy name.
I winced and fumbled for the TV remote, making a mental note to review this PS Vue ad and excoriate other advertisers for not understanding its simple lessons.
What is PS Vue?
If you don’t know, PS Vue is a television streaming service for cord-cutters who hate cable but cannot live without live TV. Somewhat confusingly, you don’t actually need a PlayStation game console to watch PS Vue. In fact, the service works with a variety of streaming devices such as Roku and Amazon Fire TV. But it started life as an app for PlayStation consoles and that’s how it got its name.
Sadly, Sony announced just this week that it will no longer offer PS Vue after January 2020. Despite offering more channels than its competitors, despite including tons of on-demand content and an easy-to-use DVR, despite having no yearly contracts or hidden fees, PS Vue has not been the success that Sony had hoped.
Chalk it up to the high cost of network TV programming, which has forced Sony to raise PS Vue prices several times. (The basic plan now costs $60 a month, a sizable hike from the original price of just $30 a month.)
I suspect PS Vue was also hurt by its name, as many people no doubt heard “PlayStation” and dismissed it as something related to video games.
Whatever problems doomed the service, the solid television ads are not to blame.
Even the earliest TV commercials for PS Vue were great. Sparkling with high production values, one early PS Vue ad told the story of desperate citizens struggling to escape the tyranny of cable TV. The ad was unique and entertaining, and it delivered its message with devastating effectiveness.
The latest ads for PS Vue dispense with the story, sets, and action of those early spots. They are essentially simple tutorials, and they work wonderfully.
Does Spectrum cable do the things PS Vue can do? Does DISH TV? I don’t know because their ads don’t tell me.
Below: This early TV ad for PS Vue shows people trying desperately to escape the oppression of their cable TV provider.
The more you tell, the more you sell
Advertising legend David Ogilvy once said, “Advertising is not an art form. It’s a medium for information, a message for a single purpose: to sell.” That’s what these PS Vue ads—particularly the product-focused narrated ones—get so right.
Admittedly, they’re not cool or sexy or funny. I don’t see any ’70s-styled emus or CGI characters or clumsy dads yelling “noooooo” in dramatic slow motion as drinks spill all over the kitchen.
I don’t hear any raucous shouting, or garbled voices, or obnoxious “music” composed specifically to irritate me into watching.
All I see is the product. I see how it works. I see what I can do with it, and what it can do for me.
As a consumer—no, scratch that—as a regular human person who is tired to death of all the idiotic ads I see every day—that’s all I really want.
Such a shame then that so many advertisers today are so obsessed with “being creative.” They’d do so much better if they would just tell us about the products they are being paid to sell.
The Cranky Ad Review verdict
Clearly, this ad will never win an award.
No one on Madison Avenue will ever think to themselves, “I wish I’d done that.”
Not one consumer or ad critic is going to remember this commercial next year, let alone 25 years from now.
But every time this ad appeared on television, it sold the product it was created to promote. And that’s the one job that all advertising is supposed to do.
Hey advertisers, how’s that for a big idea?
Cranky Ad Rating: Four anti-ad establishment stars out of five.
What do you think of this TV commercial for PS Vue? How about advertising in general? Share your thoughts below.
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Dead on. Keep fighting the good fight Rob! Maybe the inanity will someday stop, but don’t hold your breath.
Thanks, Chris. As you know, it’s not that I dislike creative ideas. Creativity in advertising is great when it is employed in the service of selling. But too many advertisements today seem more focused on selling the agency’s creativity than the products themselves.
I love this ad specifically for the reasons you pointed out. But also because it doesn’t make me want to mute it immediately like all the rest. I want to see it until the end. Super disappointed that PSVue is discontinuing though. I am not going back to Spectrum and their ridiculous prices.
Hi, Adrianna. Would it be fair to say, then, that you view your cable company like the oppressive cable provider so cleverly depicted in the PS Vue “Escape” commercial above?
Yeah, me too.
Thanks for posting.