
El Reg journo or PR agent for Bruce Willis? Sounds like someone's been ...
Moonlighting :-)
Hollywood action hero Bruce Willis has been sensationally banned from appearing on the UK's small screen ... in misleading ads touting Sky broadband. Blighty's advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority, ruled the telco's telly adverts featuring the Die Hard star were somewhat economical with the truth. One …
and were using that random pensioner instead of BW.. I'm still trying to work out why the girl (best facial expression on telly ever) goes off with him. Weird. Are they saying that if you complain about speed, you get a member of female staff to play with? Brings a whole new meaning to the word "Buffering"
best facial expression on telly ever
If you're on about the bit at the end, when the young lady* turns around while she's walking out with Brucie, then that bit always makes me laugh. I happen to think that she's quite pleasing to the eye, so if she said to me, as she does Brucie "...It's totally unlimited, as am I", then I'd be telling her to come on too!
*Jessica Ransom, just in case any of you were interested! :D
but why does she say that, in such a provocative manner, to an aging pensioner who's best movies are far behind him, who consistently seems to piss off everyone in the movie industry, refuses to positively promote his latest movie and instead makes fun of the interviewer. god knows what Sky were paying him - Stalone was going to pay him 3 million dollars for 4 days of work on the next Expendibles movie, and he insisted on getting 4 million instead, so now he's been canned and they're getting Harrison Ford instead.
don't get me wrong - the first 3 Die Hard movies were great. Last Man Standing is fantastic. Hudson Hawk! brilliant! but it's long past the time when Willis should have shuffled off to a retirement beach and out of the public eye
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"but why does she say that, in such a provocative manner, to an aging pensioner"
Ageing pensioner? He's only 58. Say that around my mother, who's just a couple of years young than Walter, and you'll get swift kick in the gentleman sausage! Its no great mystery that some young women find older men sexually attractive (hence the looks on her face throughout the entire ad and the provocative line), especially ones that are famous, loaded and, in Walters case for his age, still has a rugged good look about him... Plus he's John McLain! Hell, I've had my fair share of younger attractive women and I look like I've been chasing parked buses!
Better yet, they should be forced to actually sell their product at the price the ASA interpreted it to be for a fixed period (say 2 months) from the last broadcast of the advert. A fine doesn't help customers, if anything it penalises the existing customers. Sky would pass the costs of the fine onto the customers in the end, or under-invest in the product to the same tune.
On the plus side this sounds like it could be the plot of a new film for Brucie.
Retired police office McLain doesn't take too kindly to the ASA banning his advert so they, fearing the worst, hole up in the upper floors of their building. An hour or so later McLain, after establishing phone contact with a friendly black policeman, storms the building, killing everyone who decided his advert should be banned in an orgy of anti-ad banning violence. All while in his dressing gown.
And it would still be better than the last Die Hard film!
that advert is no better or worse than all the other broadband adverts for hiding the real terms in the small print... when was the last time BT, Virgin, TalkTalk, etc mentioned that you NEED their phone rental at £xx per month - in the body of the advert? its always in the text at the bottom of the screen
"when was the last time BT, Virgin, TalkTalk, etc mentioned that you NEED their phone rental at £xx per month - in the body of the advert?"
Need? Virgin would probably argue that they don't need to include line rental costs in the body of the advert as they generally only advertise their cable services on TV, which doesn't need a rented line and thus doesn't incur the additional cost. But don't let facts get in the way of a good rant! ;)
Theres a nice BT sport advert plastered on a wall on my way to work
"Watch BT sport free"....
then in small print it says "if you have BT broadband and line rental costing 21 quid a month"
How about the ASA saying to the broadband companies
"Listen up you lot, list the full price charged to the customer to obtain said package in the same size font you use for the headlines in your ads, failure to do so will result in a 1.5 million pound fine per advert"
But my therapist says I'm quite deluded sometimes......
"Watch BT sport free"....
then in small print it says "if you have BT broadband and line rental costing 21 quid a month"
I'm surprised. I would have expected more like "line rental costing 7quid a month". And in even smaller print "For three months, 21 quid thereafter", and, even smaller still, "Discounted line rental does not apply to existing customers".
Indeed - I could be wrong but I understand the line rental always goes back to BT whoever you give the payment to? Since it's their line fair enough. The next question I pondered was 'is my line rental somehow subsidizing a fecking tv sport channel in some way?' . Not acceptable - in fact I think the BBC news (for what it's worth) should be sport free as well!
Yours deluded etc