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For their third ad of Super Bowl 58, T-Mobile has the the kings of streaming, four Oscar winners (including an EGOT)—and Donald Faison—auditioning for the right to pitch the company’s Magenta Status customer appreciation program.
T-Mobile and their partners at Panay Films—already running a Super Bowl ad with Faison, Zach Braff, Jason Momoa and Jennifer Beals during the Super Bowl’s CBS broadcast and a Metro by T-Mobile spot with Luis Guzman during TelevisaUnivison’s presentation—sought strength in numbers by bringing in as many big names as their ad could hold.
The 60-second ad slated for the game’s second quarter features Academy Award winners Braff, Laura Dern, Common and Jennifer Hudson (who also has a Grammy, Emmy and Tony on her shelf) joining last year’s T-Mobile incumbents—Oscar-nominated actor and director Bradley Cooper and his mother, Gloria Campano—as well as Faison and Suits stars Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams as a steady stream of auditioning VIPs pitching T-Mobile’s everyday VIP service.
“When you’re part of the magenta family, we want to ensure you feel like the VIP you are,” said Mike Katz, President of Marketing, Strategy and Products at T-Mobile. “With Magenta Status, we’re going beyond all the things our customers already enjoy — unbeatable travel benefits, weekly T-Mobile Tuesdays thankings, the best streaming services for free and more — and cranking up our appreciation even further to give our customers the VIP vibes they deserve from day one.”
In what’s become a collaborative staple of T-Mobile and Panay’s Super Bowl spots, the celebrities involved often suggest or improvise their mix of quips and brand facts. Filmed on a short timetable—in some cases, at the actors’ homes—the ad features Macht and Adams explaining how T-Mobile’s program prevents customers from having to fill up or charge their rental vehicle when dropping it off at Dollar. Cooper’s observation that Magenta Status members get a $5 movie coupon every month elicits a “that’s why we belong to T-Mobile” from Campano and a raised-eyebrow retort from her son.
If none of that—or Macht and Adams’ brief song and dance about discounted Hilton stays—lands with the audience, viewers are directed to Tmobile.com/Status at the end of the ad to figure it out for themselves.
“This commercial is so different creatively from our musical, but also very similar in one way: both seek to strike a balance between entertaining and selling,” said Andrew Panay, CEO of Panay Films. “Here, we tried to unlock the personalities of these stars while still driving home the benefits of Magenta Status in a way that is still very funny and watchable.”
