Newsletter
SCREAMY Roku Ads Will Make Your Ears Buzz
Simmer down, holiday TV buyers
Everyone SHOUTS! their lines in Roku commercials that position the streamer (screamer?) as a calming influence on media consumption.
If you can’t find the clicker or hate the rigmarole of buying TVs and finding your fave shows … please, lower your voice and blood pressure by checking out what Roku has to offer. That’s the message in amusingly irritating ads from agency Fellow Kids and Hungry Man director Dave Laden.
They’ll leave the brand proposition ringing in your brain.
After watching those, my fillings are on fire. Let the shoutvertising craze begin!
“The TV experience can feel frustrating and, yes, even annoying,” Roku director of device marketing Colleen McGee tells Muse. “Whether it’s searching for a lost remote, navigating a confusing ‘smart’ TV interface or decoding tech jargon just to find the right TV, it can leave people wanting to scream. So, we had people scream. A lot.”
Indeed, such situations feel familiar. Though goofy, these ads successfully amplify—literally, and in a memorable way—the tech-driven angst many of us feel from time to time.
“We leaned into that emotion of frustration,” says McGee. “Our campaign embraces this exaggeration, because while the situations are heightened, they’re also highly relatable. These everyday frustrations create the perfect setup to introduce Roku as the solution. The juxtaposition highlights the contrast of how Roku products remove friction to transform moments of stress into something enjoyable and entertaining.”
During the shoots, “We basically blew out every actor’s voice with all the screaming,” she recalls. “Some had more screaming stamina than others, it was pretty silly to behold. Production had tea with honey and lozenges on standby.”
The work breaks today, online and elsewhere, designed to keep Roku products top of mind during the holiday shopping season.
During which, of course, the brand hopes to do a volume business. (Such silly wordplay. Feel free to shout at the screen.)
