DUSTIN HOFFMAN STARS FOR TELSTRA NEXTG
July 10 2007, 4:47 am | | 20 Comments
George Patterson Y&R Sydney has launched a series of celebrity spots promoting Telstra’s NextG mobile network, starring Bob Geldoff, John McEnroe and this one, featuring Dustin Hoffman. McLeod’s Daughters actress Rachael Carpani is the ongoing face of the campaign, which includes cinema, outdoor, print, online, television and in-store and point-of-sale.
The commercials were created by Michael Stanford and Tim Hall, and directed by David Denneen via Filmgraphics.
20 Comments
Nice to have the budget, but goes to prove anything is possible, and creatives should always push for what would seem impossible, eg a Hollywood star.My only negative is that if you watched all of live earth, you saw the spot about 1,000,000 times
This whole campaign is terrible. It has client hands all over it. The celebrity endorsement goes to waste in a series of lacklustre executions that look and feel like the client wrote the ads themselves and are as funny as getting run over by a truck. How many millions gone to waste, Telstra. What a shame. Probably some of the worst Telco ads out there at the moment. And the outdoor with the McLeod daughter’s hottie in parachuting gear? oh, man.
That didn’t take long for them to remove it from Youtube. I wonder what was the offense? Hoffman’s presence? It can’t be Telstra as there are quite a few ads on there.Ah well…Sephyrothhttp://www.sephyroth.net
What a waste of talent!
I’ve seen the ads. They’re not bad. The problem I have is that even if what the ads are saying is true, I don’t know if many people will believe Telstra actually delivers on the promise.I don’t.
Big budget ads no doubt, but don’t think it’s a big idea. The first couple of times I saw them I just kinda thought ‘huh?’.12:04 hit the nail on the head, we’re talking Telstra here, and after my nightmare dealings with them trying to get a new home phone connected I’ll never ever use them and never, ever believe they offer service!
i hate writing negative comments on this blog but this campaign is very lame. at least the creatives got a trip overseas to meet some hollywood stars.
Obviously these should have been 35 second ads as the gag seems to have been removed in editing.
What’s the promise? That Telstra might be shit, but they’re not as shitty as a cut-price american telco?Telstra blows goat. As does this campaign.
I hope there is a follow-up campaign with a few stars aged under 60. Here are Bec and my suggestions:Prince William and/or HarryRhiannaMichael BubelPinkAvril LeveneDavid BeckhamJonny Wilkinson (esp with World Cup this year)Just thoughtstarters. We’ll keep thinking.
absolute rubbish. no more no less. I read that someone at the agency reckons Hoffman and Geldof loved the scripts and wanted to do them. That’s one way to PR a load of rubbish.
poorly executed, although Sir Bob does do a nice job. how you can go wrong with Dustin Hoffman as your lead actor I don’t know, but it happened. I don’t beleive that Telstra service is any good either… probably because I live here! Won’t convince Aussies, seems more like an ad to sell Telstra to potential overseas consumers. Of which there are none. So a bit of a waste really!
Interesting point 10.19, but since almost no one watched Live Earth, over exposure wasn’t a problem. (What a laugh. Rich rock stars using a zillion tonnes of carbon to tell us to use less carbon, all backed by a bloke who, when he was vice-president, ran a campaign attacking rich rock stars for their bad moral example. Gotta be the biggest self-satiring event in history.)
They are not the worst telco ads out there in the moment. Dodo is marginally worst.
It’s not parachuting gear she’s wearing, you idiot. It is a jet fighter’s pilot uniform. She has a jet fighter flying above her, because Telstra is the fastest and it’s mobile, Get it? Genious.
It shouldn’t happen in Australia.Sorry guys ,they are terrible.Even DD and co couldn’t save them.
If drop outs wouldn’t happen in Australia, how come they happen in Glebe?????
What was the budget???
Just goes to show that even great talent can’t disguise a piss poor idea.
Jeez the kiddies are getting stuck into the campaign, aren’t they? Putting aside the basic achilles heel of an undeliverable proposition, the spots are quite enjoyable, especially the Geldoff.The boys have taken a very boring brief and rather than make a checklist, made something eminently watchable and entertaining.Nice one Timbo. I don’t know Stanford.