Oh, Sling. I like your live TV streaming service, I really do. But your brand’s TV commercials . . . Holy shit, your commercials. What on earth made you think that anyone wants to see an elderly waitress fall to the floor in a heap in front of customers — or that such a thing might be funny in the first place?
In case you haven’t seen it, Cranky Reader, I’m talking about “CPR: Free Trial,” a new 30-second TV commercial from Sling and agency Mekanism.
The ad opens inside a diner where an elderly waitress is in the process of slipping and falling tumultuously to the floor, arms and legs akimbo.
Diners turn and gasp as a female patron (actress Dina Freberg) jumps to her feet and barks, “It’s OK, everyone. I got this.”
“Are you a doctor?” a man asks.
“Negative,” the woman responds. “I just watch a ton of medical dramas on Sling TV.”
She fusses with the downed sexagenarian for a moment and says: “Good news. Her kidneys are beating.”
*insert giant Roll Eyes emoji here*
The voiceover: “Sling has sports, live news, and entertainment. It’s the best of live TV for just 35 dollars a month.”
Back to the woman who is not a doctor in real life but who watches a ton of them on TV. She spouts more nonsensical dialog, and the voiceover guy says something about trying Sling for free.
Finally — mercifully — the commercial ends.
Below: Sling’s 30-second TV commercial, “CPR: Free Trial.”
Let’s take a closer look at what Sling and its advertising agency may have been trying to accomplish here, and see if we can sort out how it all went so horribly wrong.
What Sling TV’s ‘falling waitress’ commercial gets right
Well, the ad is certainly attention-getting.
Then again, I can think of a lot of things that are attention-getting.
A fiery car crash. A high-speed train wreck. A pair of young lovers skinny-dipping in piranha-infested waters.
The problem is, none of these things is funny. In fact, all are quite terrible.
Unfortunately for Sling, it’s not easy for an unwitting TV viewer to bounce back from seeing that elderly waitress crash to the floor for the first time, no matter how hilarious the subsequent dialog may be. And just for the record, the dialog in this commercial is decidedly non-hilarious.
What Sling TV’s ‘falling waitress’ commercial gets wrong
Far and away the biggest problem with this commercial is its premise.
Because once viewers get over the shock of seeing that waitress fall — a sight that potentially brings to mind painful memories of their own mothers, grandmothers, or friends and family members falling and getting hurt — I suspect a good many are going to feel upset when they realize they’ve been had by another ka-RAZY advertiser callous enough to use such a calamity as the setup for an oh-so clever joke.
I know I felt a dawning resentment the first time I saw this commercial — a rising urge to punch the main actress straight in the gob as the mood changed abruptly and she began to deliver her supposedly comical lines with the outsized pomposity of a roomful of modern advertising creatives.
From the moment that old woman hit the floor, I was no longer in the mood to hear why I should subscribe to a live-TV streaming service. The accident was too sudden, too shocking, and it lacked the comedic nuance that would have signaled to viewers that it was all just slapstick fun.
Not that the creatives behind this ad felt particularly bothered to give me reasons to buy.
In fact, scarcely 8 seconds of this 28-second spot are dedicated to conveying Sling’s main selling points — generically referred to as “sports, live news, entertainment,” and “free trial.”
The rest is contrived, ill-advised idiocy.
What Sling TV’s ‘falling waitress’ commercial should have done instead
As I said at the top of this review, I like Sling as a live-TV streaming service — for many reasons.
First and foremost is the number of channels. After Sony pulled the plug on PS Vue, its own live-TV streaming service, a few years back, I test drove a slew of similar apps in search of a replacement: Philo, Fubo, YouTube TV, to name a few. At last, I found Sling and discovered that no other streaming service offered a greater selection of channels — certainly not for the price.
That’s what clinched the buying decision for me — the channels. And how did I learn of these channels? Sling showed me, of course. On one of its web pages, Sling presented its offerings — a basic Orange package, a more robust Blue package, and a premium tier that included all of the channels of Orange and Blue together.
A handy chart displayed the logos of all of the available networks within each tier — a fast and easy way for me to see immediately that Sling had the shows I wanted.
There was History Channel, and National Geographic, and A&E; HLN (for Forensic Files, of course), and all of the food and cooking channels my wife likes to watch.
Which begs the question: How in the hell does a 30-second TV commercial for Sling not show off these packages? What better way to sell a live-TV streaming service than to fill the screen with a cascade of logos identifying popular and in-demand networks?
It costs a lot of money for a company like Sling to grow and maintain its selection of network partners. That’s one of the main reasons Sony discontinued PS Vue — despite being a great service, PS Vue simply didn’t grow its user base fast enough to keep pace with the rising costs of network partnerships.
So it seems to me that if a company like Sling is paying big money to offer these networks, then the ads promoting this service had damned well better put those network logos front and center.
Honestly, was there not one person at Sling or its ad agency who thought to do this?
I can only assume that the creative wizards behind this commercial saw this idea as too easy, too obvious, too trite and simplistic for advertising prodigies of their refined tastes and statures, who apparently believe that their job is to fill the breaks in TV programming with community-theater–quality mini clown shows rather than sell products and services — you know, precisely the thing their clients are paying them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to do.
Of course, showing the channel selection is just one blatantly obvious way to improve this ad. Not making fun of old people falling and getting hurt could be another. For additional smart ways to improve its advertising, the people at Sling need only to look at Sony’s work for PS Vue.
From big-budget and bombastic story-driven narratives to quietly confident product demonstrations, PS Vue commercials were generally excellent, earning four stars from this blog and a special place in this cranky creative’s heart.
Sling TV’s ‘falling waitress’ commercial: The Cranky Ad Review verdict
What a shame. With “Falling Waitress” and other recent commercials (“Slingers,” ugh), Sling has joined the ranks of brands like SimpliSafe whose great products are let down by ads so bad, you’re embarrassed to admit you bought them.
It’s especially insulting to consumers who’ve put down their hard-earned money on these brands after so much careful research and consideration. I personally put many hours into finding what I believe to be smart solutions for my home security and live-TV streaming needs. For these companies to then portray their products, and the people who buy them, in such goofy and distasteful ways feels like a slap in the face.
That’s straight-up malpractice on the part of brand managers and the advertising agency, if you ask me.
So, what is the solution?
Maybe if the people behind Sling’s advertising put half as much effort into getting to know the product as real consumers do — instead of wasting weeks and months contriving shitty jokes and visual gags — their commercials would make everyone — not least of all, themselves — look a lot less stupid.
Cranky Ad Review rating: One not-so-bright star out of five.
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I once saw an elderly woman collapse and fall to the floor in a diner. I immediately dialed 911 and it turned out she’d had a massive stroke. I learned the next week she’d died in the hospital a few days later. That was almost 21 years ago, but the memory is vivid.
She was a customer, not a waitress, and she fell from a seated position, but I can’t see that commercial without thinking of that woman and her poor, helpless husband who was with her in the diner.
Exactly my point, Brad. Thank you for sharing.
I myself have a horrifying memory of my grandmother falling face-first off a stair onto a concrete floor. I was maybe 10 at the time. One moment she was smiling and waving at us as our car came up the driveway. The next, heart-wrenching terror.
I don’t like being reminded of that memory, either.
I believe that this review is a tiring and troublesome symptom of a recent society that grooms people to be offended and hurt at every turn. It’s difficult to believe that even a sizeable minority of people would be in shock and horror and changed forever more through the remainder of the commercial due to the tragedy of seeing the woman slip and fall as the comedic aspect of the ad unfolds immediately thereafter. The premise of the criticism denies the fact that humor has essentially always been in large part and in greatest effect born of pain or uncomfortable or awkward moments or subjects – hence the term “comic relief.” Slapstick comedy, The Three Stooges, and old Looney Tunes cartoons made people laugh for decades – generations, because even the physical violence or pain is a setup for humor; we should stop trying to suppress our human nature and grooming people to offended and aggrieved as a purported sign of higher human evolution. As there’s been an effective ban on this “horrifying” violence, on subject matter that simply naturally makes most people laugh, and while cartoon characters now hash out their problems with understanding and togetherness instead of frying pans and anvils, true destructive violence at large has worsened – maybe in some part because everyone is being groomed to be hurt and offended. America’s Funniest Home Videos – a family show, seems always to have taken advantage of showing a man bent over in pain after being hit in the crotch. Why? It’s because even those of us who have suffered the excruciating pain of the same thing still can’t help but laugh at the moment of their suffering; we’re not brought back to the discomfort and injustice of our own such situations, and most of us will laugh at those moments ourselves when the pain subsides. The actress in this commercial is Dina Freberg. She happens now to be in an Amazon ad in which she’s a bridesmaid talking to the bride before a wedding, saying that if things don’t work out, she can always cancel and nobody would blame her (speaking about her Amazon subscription, but the double meaning for the bride-to-be is that perhaps she would want to back out of her wedding or marriage. Is this now off limits too, because anyone who’s unhappy in marriage or who has ever had to get divorced will now be brought to a painful place? This has gotten to the point of absurdity, and would place a ban on all commercials, TV shows and movies that use any act of violence, infidelity, kidnapping or any form of social injustice as focus of their stories, because someone may be brought back to an actual bad memory from an explosion, racist act, etc.? That would actually be an untenable and unhealthy societal norm.
Sorry, Nick, but if you’re looking for Grievance Culture, you won’t find it here. And I’ll have you know, my sense of humor is fabulous. The truth is, a falling old woman is a poor setup for a joke under any circumstance.
Liberty Mutual ads: Customized for everyone! Give me a break! Stupid idea. Just check the box on any Car insurance application and your insurance is “CUSTOMIZED” A slap in the face from an insurance company that thinks we are all morons. The EMU too. An obvious copy of the GEICO gecko, which I happen to like but again shows that Liberty Mutual thinks you are a moron and won’t notice the copy. Fire the ad company!
I could not agree more. I’ve thought from the get-go that the Liberty Mutual ads in recent years have all been trash, and that the writers are buffoons – nothing clever, nothing funny, nothing effective. I’ve been shocked that they’ve stayed with these advertisers, and the fact that they have is to me a sign that there’s a problem with the people running Liberty Mutual itself, and has turned me off to any thought I may have had to use this company.
Your suggestion that Sling should cascade all the logos of the channels it carries would be good if it was a differentiator. But channels aren’t. Most streaming services like Sling carry the same channels. It’s really the bane of all tv providers. No one’s service really offers anything drastically different than another. Plus, showing all the channels would simply be focusing on the features of the service rather than the benefits. This ad points out the benefits (you’ll be able to watch so much tv you become an “expert”).
Is this an attempt at delightfully subtle humor? As I wrote in my review, when I was researching my options for a new streaming service, channels were the deal-maker for me. Sling’s Blue package came out the clear winner as it was the only place we could find all of the channels we watch, including History, Discovery, National Geographic, A&E, HLN, and all of the food channels Adrianna enjoys, including smaller ones like Tastemade.
But I did get a chuckle from your tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the benefit of Sling is that it can actually turn people into doctors and other super-smart people. 😛
http://www.dinafreberg.com/ Dina Freberg, apparently. My mom is elderly, and I screamed the first time I saw that older lady fall. Screamed. I can’t name ten things that scared me that much in my entire life. I am not a fan of the ad.
Thank you! I’ll edit the post to include the actress’s name.
Brilliant commercial: Hilarious though cynical! Cynicism is nothing more than reality on steroids. The actress — the Sling obsessed medical show watcher — was hilarious; what a talent! And no mentions her name anywhere. This actress portrays a streaming device obsessed person unable to square reality from her daily life to which Sling was very good at creating … the meaning of the ad. As for the falling old lady waitress, self-obsession has its consequences for the old and other societal throwaways. Kudos to Sling, they produced an ad as well as accurate social commentary. The cynicism, of course, is that Sling is saying we know our ad is cynical social commentary and we really don’t give a rats ass … just buy our stuff. How much more honest can a tv ad be?
Interesting take, Richard! For what it’s worth, I tried my best to find the name of the actress who comes to the aid of the downed waitress. If anyone knows her name, please do let us know.
Hey, Richard. A Cranky reader has informed us that the actress in this ad is named Dina Freberg (http://www.dinafreberg.com/).
i thought it was funny. The actress’ timing of her lines was perfect!
OK, Tom, I’ll give you that. When the guy asks the woman if she’s a doctor and she responds, “Negative. I just watch a ton of medical dramas on Sling TV” — the comic timing and pure absurdity of the line both hit the mark. If only the writers had found a funnier and more benign setup than having an old lady slip and fall to the floor. I mean, not even Life Alert commercials dare to show such a scene, and that’s a company for which falling seniors is practically its entire stock-in-trade.
We saw some old lady fall down in a Safeway store once so we picked her up dusted her off and she went on her way!
OK, this made me chuckle. 😛 Thanks, Gary!