John Travolta Serves Up Grease-Inspired Super Bowl Stinker; As P. Diddy Saves The Day

John Travolta Serves Up Grease-Inspired Super Bowl Stinker; As P. Diddy Saves The Day
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



If there’s anything to be learned from this year’s Super Bowl ads (the game’s Monday morning, Australia time), it’s comedy and celebrity are the ECD’s bullets of choice this year.

As B&T’s been covering, thus far we’ve seen a flotilla of A-listers fronting humorous ads, names that have included Serena Williams, Adam Driver, Ben Affleck, Steve Martin and a cracker from Will Ferrell to namedrop but a few.

Following on from the recurring “celeb plays dumb” theme comes two new spots that launched overnight ahead of Monday’s Eagles-Chiefs game.

The first stars none other than Hollywood legend John Travolta reprising his Grease role from 45 years ago for T-Mobile’s 5G home internet service.

Strangely positioned alongside Scrubs actors Zach Braff and Donald Faison, Travolta awkwardly blunders his way though a rehashed version of Grease’s “Summer Nights” in an ode to T-Mobile.

For B&T it just feels a bit lazy and a missed opportunity and arguably confirms there’s way too many Gen Xers running agency creative departments.

Still, it’s harmless, cheesy fun and we assume Travolta, 68, put the embarrassment aside long enough to cash his very large endorsement cheque. The work of Panay Films, watch it unfold below:

However, all is not lost, as billionaire rapper and entrepreneur P. Diddy/Sean Combs comes to the rescue in his Super Bowl work for Uber One (which is a new thing in the US where customers can save money by using Uber’s food and rider service.)

The one-minute clip shows Diddy being tasked by executives to create a hit song for the Uber One platform. Diddy’s aided and abetted in the task by Montell Jordan, Donna Lewis and Kelis.

Ever the businessman, the 53-year-old Combs also uses the spot to promote his CÎROC Vodka and DeLeón Tequila spirits labels.

Watch the work below:

In a statement to USA Today, Uber’s global ECD Danielle Hawley spoke about Uber’s decision to recruit Mr Diddy.

“As the only global company that helps you go anywhere and get anything, our membership program is the best way to save,” Hawley said. “We want people to remember that, so for this year’s Super Bowl ad, we set out to help everyone get Uber One stuck in their heads – and what better way to do that than with a hit song?”

 

 




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John Travolta P Diddy Super Bowl 2023 Uber

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