Wait, Now Heath Ledger Has a DirecTV Commercial?
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Trailers and Clips
.jpg)
If you've been watching playoff baseball these past few weeks, you've probably come across the Tommy Boy DirecTV commercial about, say, 176,000 times. About a week after it began airing, the satellite television company came under fire for a second time for airing parody commercials featuring actors or actresses who died tragically at a young age. The first was a commercial featuring Poltergeist actress Heather O'Rourke, and now folks are really pissed DirecTV is using Chris Farley in a commercial that stars David Spade (who reprises his character from Tommy Boy in a parody of the "Fat Guy in a Little Coat" scene).
If you want my personal opinion, I think DirecTV does this sort of stuff on purpose -- claiming to be "celebrating" the life of a dead celebrity, though what they're really hoping for is that people like us (and several other sites) will give them a bunch of free publicity by writing attacks on their ads. But back to my original point: The folks over at Landline TV have put together a spoof of the DirecTV dead celebrity spoofs -- this time including folks like Heath Ledger, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ. Honestly, I'm surprised Michael Jackson hasn't made an appearance yet ... or, heck, how long before DirecTV butchers a scene from Dirty Dancing and craps all over Patrick Swayze?
What do you think about these commercials? Yes, they're annoying (believe us we know), but are they in the wrong for featuring dead celebrities? Or what about celebrities who died tragic deaths at an early age? Is there a difference? Anyone canceling their DirecTV service because of this?
Chime in below, and watch the video after the jump.
[via FilmDrunk]
Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams Reunite for 'Mission Impossible 4'
'Big Top Pee-Wee': The Original Benicio Del Toro Wolfman
Spin-ematical: New on DVD and Blu-ray for 2/9
Watch This: Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short 'Logorama'
Chris Nolan to Lead 'Superman' Reboot!?
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-02-2009 @ 4:19PM
JrodLiebs said...
It may just have something to do with the dead celebrity's cheap (or non-existent) fee for their image rights. Just a guess.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 4:19PM
DH said...
David Carradine needs to be used for this next.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 4:31PM
Rob Stevens said...
They can't do Dirty Dancing. Jennifer Grey doesn't look anything like she used to since she got the nose job.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 4:51PM
Bobby Booey said...
Yeah, it's all Directv's fault, not the family of the dead celebrities or the owners of the movies who have no problem selling the person's image in order to make a few bucks.
And they do not just make commercials using dead celebrities in them. They also use celebrities who are still very much alive, but who's careers are dead, for example Kim Basinger in Wayne's World 2. Where is the outrage for that!
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 4:57PM
Scott said...
It may just be my vision today, but that really didn't look like Heath Ledger.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 5:12PM
William Wallace said...
As the camera pans around the pottery wheel we see Patrick Swayze look up and give a wink, whispering into Demi Moore's ear. Convincing her to switch to Direct TV.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 5:24PM
Pudie said...
Has anyone actually seen this on TV? That looked horribly fake to me.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 11:01PM
Brent Schmidt said...
All I gotta say is.... woooowwwwwwww...
They're fake.
11-02-2009 @ 6:00PM
Mike said...
People, it says in the article that the Heath Ledger one is a spoof.
Personally, I didn't have a problem with the Chris Farley one. Spade was a close personal friend of his, and I'm sure he got the family's okay. The Poltergeist one, however, was in bad taste.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 6:46PM
KE Smith said...
DirecTV = classy. Hey Dish, jealous? Sure there are plenty of dead celebs and people willing to sell them out for you too. Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEMg90MgNbg
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 7:18PM
Andy said...
You know, it's like someone pointed out...DirecTV could easily use all of these clips in a montage of available movies on the service and no one would bat an eye.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 9:05PM
Shadowtag said...
But then you won't TALK ABOUT IT will you?
See, how this works?
11-02-2009 @ 9:05PM
Shadowtag said...
Really? This many people are irked at DirecTV digging up Farley they made a badly spliced together/poor impression of Ledger to get a point across?
It wasn't Ledger, by the by. Come on. Turn your ire at something worth yelling at rather than where you're going to get all your bad tv from
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 9:33PM
jim said...
If the family was offended that would be one thing. But since when are people so politically correct that they think they are obligated to be offended on someone else's behalf?
If you are not a friend or relative of the person, just get over it.
Reply
11-03-2009 @ 3:46PM
stalinsays said...
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1902711
College Humor also did this bit. I like both, but I have to give the edge to CH based on the movie choices.
Reply
11-03-2009 @ 5:40PM
KE Smith said...
I found another great video for those that are interested! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YiyFk2GuPM
Reply