The saga of Chuck continues

More on Chuck. If Ronald Reagan was the Teflon President, Charles Barkley is the Titanium Celebrity Endorser.

Hey T-mobile, lighten up!

I like funny ads that have a point. And I like when superstar athletes are used well in marketing. And I love the combination of the two.

Usually, it’s a result of digging deep into an athlete’s psyche and uncovering the insight that makes him or her special, then turning that insight into something surprising and fun.

Sometimes, it’s purely using what you’ve got on the surface. A dude who’s an athlete that you like purely because you like him as an athlete. And when he gets together with his athlete friends, you just let the funny happen.

So I've really enjoyed the T-mobile campaign that has featured Charles Barkley and D-Wade. It’s well written, well shot, and well edited. The performances seem genuine and I laugh at just about every one.

I was annnoyed when T-Mobile pulled the ads after Sir Charles’ latest DUI. I thought they should have just kept plugging away. DUI’s are part of his charm!

But let’s hear it for the passage of time. It makes all ickiness in the world of sports go away. Just ask Marv Albert. T-Mobile has brought Chuck back, this time with Dwight Howard too.



It’s funny! Not crystal-ball-in-the-nuts funny, but smart, real, fresh dialogue funny. Good for those guys. I love everything T-Mobile’s doing with these guys, except for the part where they pulled the ads for a while.

C’mon, T-mobile. We knew you were going to put Chuck back on at some point. Next time, put away the pretense and just let the boys play.

To pull or not to pull?

What happens when your morning mug of coffee is accompanied by a mug shot of the celebrity endorser in whom you’ve invested millions of dollars? There's not enough cream ‘n sugar in the world to make that particular cuppa joe taste better.

But is it bitter enough to pull the ads featuring your bad boy? For T-Mobile, yes.

They did some nice work recently featuring Dr. J, Magic Johnson, DWade and Charles Barkley, but Chuck did his own work on the Scottsdale roadways earlier this year, ushering in the New Year behind the wheel with a blood-alcohol level of .149 percent , nearly twice the legal limit of .08 percent in Arizona.

T-Mobile has pulled the ads. Charles has also lost his NBA studio gig on TNT. Oops.

Wicked, wicked alcohol. It’ll get you in trouble and lose you lots of good things, like jobs and endorsements. And the things that go with them, like really colorful suits and the freedom to gamble away $10 million over a few years. Plus, people will enjoy making fun of you (although it’ll also put you in some pretty prestigious company). Oops.

For now, all the interested parties have done what’s expected of them. Charles has apologized and T-Mobile has scrapped the ads, but like Marv Albert, Steve Howe, Bill Clinton, and probably even Pacman Jones, they’ll be back.

It’s not the illegal part that makes me crazy. It’s the stupid part. It’s watching golden eggs fly away when all you have to do is sit on them. Sad truth is, for the uber talented, there are always more golden eggs.

Unpredictable service, good ads

I’m a big fan of Verizon Wireless. My loyalty to them (and my contempt for AT&T) is why I got a Storm vs iphone. So I know very little about T-Mobile, other than the fact that their ads with current and former pro basketball players crack me up.

I’ve been paying attention to their ads for a while, mainly because I think Catherine Zeta-Jones is, how you say, shmokin’ hot. CZJ, you were rooked by Zellweger for the Oscar nod. I’d do a number with you any day. But I can’t do it alone…

Since Catherine’s been gone, D-Wade and Charles Barkley have picked up the torch, and they’ve done a great job. The spots are funny and strategic, crafted around T-Mobile’s selling idea of their Fave Five calling plan. They even ran a Super Bowl ad last year, which ranked in the middle of the USA Today Ad Meter, but as high as any ad in the online user poll.



Getting celebrity athletes to act well is so hard. Most of them would rather be on the court than on a set (or on the golf course). And in a spot with a lot of dialogue, the desired nuances in performance that dictate the need to do take after take…it’s just not what athletes want to be doing (Michael Jordan used to start saying “That was perfect. What was wrong with the one?!” after the second take).

There are so many factors involved; obviously, having an athlete with a scoche of acting ability is nice, but it’s rare. So sometimes you have to write around it, and sometimes you can take advantage of it, like in the ending of this commercial:



All challenges considered, the new T-Mobile commercial is wonderfully pleasing. Nice performances, good writing, surprising appearances from Magic Johnson and Dr. J. I’m surprised they didn’t hold this one for the Super Bowl. Seems to have all the ingredients.

If you want to laugh out loud, watch the Heineken spot in my blog from a couple of days ago (you must), but if you want a nice chuckle, and a great example of how to use athletes well, you could do a lot worse than the work from T-Mobile.