DirecTV Desecrates Chris Farley's Memory

There are many reasons to hate DirecTV. They have complete control of the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package. They tell you their satellite signal never goes out in the rain when IT TOTALLY DOES, WHICH MAKES THEM LYING LIARS. And they discriminate against all customers who do not have a clear view of the southern sky. They’re directionist!

To that list of sins, you can now add the company’s use of the late Chris Farley to help shill their wares, a move that has sparked no shortage of hostility from the blog world.

Even before the Farley spot, this DirecTV ad campaign was in poor taste, extrapolating scenes from famous movies (most notably “Aliens”) and then having the film’s characters speak directly to the camera to tell you why you should buy DirecTV.

It was a crass, obnoxious way to sell a product, and it made everyone who volunteered to participate look shameless. But with the “Tommy Boy” spot, the campaign has clearly crashed through the basement floor and blazed straight down into a heretofore unknown level of the ad underworld.

It’s weird enough to have Farley in the spot, but then to have David Spade (who will do anything for money provided he doesn’t have to exert any effort of any kind) sitting there, ripping on him, is even weirder. “Great, I’m here with tons of fun when I could be at home watching DirecTV… But no, I’m stuck here with either cable… or THAT.”

Indeed, Spade could be at home with DirecTV. Instead, he’s with the ghost of his famous friend, who died as a result of a drug problem that almost certainly stemmed from massive insecurities, and making a (bad) fat joke about him. HILARIOUS!




Well, fans of the late comedian aren’t exactly thrilled with this news. A simple search of the Twitterverse offers an example of the standard reaction to the spot:

The Farley-Spade DirecTV commercial creeps me out…

Just remember, life could be worse - you could be David Spade abusing the memory of your dead buddy Chris Farley in a DirecTV ad.

Whoever came up with the Chris Farley/David Spade DirecTV commercial should be strapped to a rocket and fired into the sun...

shame David Spade can't be in a DirecTV commercial without having to digitally reanimate Chris Farley's corpse. Why not just play Joe Dirt?…

seriously, that directv chris farley ad is not cool

And those are the people who didn’t even swear. Hey DirecTV, I have an idea for you: instead of spending what I presume would be tons of money to let Farley’s estate dig up his corpse, you spend THAT money instead on making sure the receiver I bought from you doesn’t take 7 years to reboot when I blow a fuse.

Jerks.

Drew Magary has over a decade of experience in the ad industry. He is the author of “Men With Balls: The Professional Athlete’s Handbook” and a columnist for Deadspin.com.

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