For T-Mobile, Travolta Sings, Bradley Cooper Goofs Around

Tell him more, tell him more … about 5G!

John Travolta and Scrubs stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison remake “Summer Nights” from Grease as a tribute to T-Mobile’s home internet service in a Super Bowl :60 revealed today.

Developed by Panay Films, we get a pleasing pop-culture potpourri, with goofy brand-centric lyrics, bad-dad dance moves and Travolta striking a Saturday Night Fever pose near the end. It’s joyously chill and goofy. Dude’s star power shines especially bright, and we dig the no-frills approach.

It’s Travolta. Spoofing Grease. And himself. In the Super Bowl. With a pair of Scrubs. T-Mobile doesn’t need any fancy Booking.com musical stylings to hit all the right notes. While no show-stopper, it works great. Just like 5G. If you can believe that jingle.

Some media view the performance as a tribute to Olivia Newton-John, who starred with Travolta in Grease, and succumbed to cancer six months ago. That feels like a stretch. But if it’s not, then in terms of sensitivity, the timing seems odd. Will we see a backlash? T-Mobile declined comment.

The :60 follows a similar 2022 Big Game play from the brand that also starred Braff and Faison. In that one, they performed a reworking of “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story. 

Along with T-Mobile and Booking, other SB advertisers leaning bigly into music and nostalgia—always handy tropes!—include Uber One, Bud Light, Doritos and Workday, among others.

A second brand entry, also from Panay, stars Bradley Cooper and his mom, Gloria Campano. Neither sings, but Brad dons T-Mobile threads and tries hard to keep a straight face. (Spoiler: He fails repeatedly.)