Dak Prescott vs. the Real Housewives Is an Epic Showdown in Latest DirecTV Ad

At DirecTV, the hits just keep coming! To wit: Real Housewives icon Teresa Giudice viscously sacks Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in the opening frames of the broadcaster’s latest spot from TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles and directors Jake Szymanksi and Payman Benz.

Like earlier entries in the rollicking “Get Your TV Together” campaign, the :85 touts DirecTV’s mix of live fare (sports, special events) and on-demand faves (movies, popular shows). Housewives vets Giudice, Kyle Richards and Kenya Moore suit up in slinky, shiny (probably not NFL regulation) gear for a gridiron showdown against Prescott and his real-life teammate, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.

Slapstick silliness ensues, with actor Bob Stephenson (Top Gun: Maverick) almost stealing the show as the Wives’ superbly spangled coach calling in a spa order, rather than plays, from the sidelines.

Fans will smile at the many Easter eggs, notably that callback to Teresa’s fierce table flip from The Real Housewives of New Jersey in 2009. “TV Together” is all about fandom, offering giddy cultural mashups for our splintered media age. Past iterations fusing Serena Williams with the Wonder Woman and Matrix franchises likewise scored, as did this Ghostbusters romp featuring four Major League Baseball greats.

It’s a smart strategy, especially well realized, celebrating the stuff we love to watch and pointing to a place—DirecTV—that offers a wealth of choices in an accessible format. That said, if the pay-TV category continues to sag, at some point the brand may need to tweak its game plan.

The “Housewives” blitz features edits from the full-length spot running across various channels, plus digital outreach from Critical Mass including Snap filters, Reddit integration and a Meta AR experience.

Below, TBWACD creative directors Ryan Buckley and Mark Winters bring the work into focus:

Muse: Why mix Real Housewives and the NFL?

Ryan Buckley: At first glance, you may think football and reality TV have no business being in the same room together. But I think we proved that Dak fans and Teresa fans have more in common than they think—and whatever you love, DirecTV is where you can find it. We knew highlighting football was a priority for this campaign, and who better to give some seasoned pros a run for their money than some equally hardened Real Housewives? It’s such a disparate combination, that somehow fits together perfectly.

Describe what went down at the shoot.

Mark Winters: Dak and CeeDee were playing football with the crew, the Housewives were taking selfies with everyone. It was an electric atmosphere that felt more like a celebration than a high-stakes commercial shoot.

Why these three Housewives specifically?

Mark Winters: Each represents a different Housewives franchise, so every reality fan can have a little skin in the game.

Ryan Buckley: We dug into our Housewives’ personalities and backstories to load their performances with real fan-service moments. Obviously, Teresa’s table flip is one of the most jaw-dropping moments in Housewives history, so we had to bring it back. But this time, Dak’s the one losing his cool. We gave Kenya Moore’s iconic twirl a cameo. Even the Housewives’ jersey numbers tie into their backstory. [Moore, for example, wears No. 93, referencing the year of her Miss USA selection.] It was all about mining the fandoms of both Housewives and football for references that let folks know DirecTV “gets it” when it comes to their TV obsessions.

Can you expand on that idea, talk about the campaign’s cultural resonance?

Ryan Buckley: The goal is to get people wondering, “What will they bring together next?” We even see comments online where people are pitching their own mashups, fan art and other little bits of love that let us know we’re resonating. For us, creatively, DirecTV bringing all the TV you love together, in one place, is a good kind of excess—one that lets us go to a maximalist, madcap place where there are more opportunities for fun than there are rules. We’ve always filtered what we do through the maxim, “Make the ads as entertaining as the content DirecTV provides,” which lets us go beyond just representing content and start actually participating in the cultural conversation that’s happening around entertainment at large.

CREDITS

CLIENT CREDITS
Vince Torres: Chief Marketing Officer
Kendall Thaker: VP, Brand, Creative & Integrated Planning
Sheri Holmes: Senior Director, Product Marketing Management
Jenn Wang: Director, Product Marketing Management
Ty Tanioka: Senior Product Marketing Manager
Taski Arenas: Senior Lead Creative Direction

TBWACHIATDAY LA
Creative Credits
Renato Fernandez: Chief Creative Officer
Jason Karley: Group Creative Director
Mark Winters: Creative Director
Ryan Buckley: Creative Director
Josh Hill: Senior Copywriter
Cheston Kwan: Senior Art Director
Jessica Nugent: Copywriter
Rachel Findlay: Art Director
Andrew Bae: Jr. Art Director
Bruno Regalo: Chief Design Officer
Sydney Tomer: Designer
Ekaterina Cervantes: Designer

Production Credits
Guia Iacomin: Director of Content Production
Alicia Portner: Senior Producer
Dena Moore: Executive Art Producer
Dessiah Davis: Director of Traffic Operations
Marian Cabasso: Traffic Manager
Robin Rossi: Director of Business Affairs

Account Credits
Erin Riley: CEO
Matt Theisen: Group Brand Lead
Emily Gill: Brand Director
Carlos Quintanilla: Brand  Supervisor
Bridget Derraugh: Brand  Executive
Lawrence Gonzales: Project Manager

Strategy Credits
Jen Costello: Chief Strategy Officer
Jesse Unger: Group Strategy Director
Laura Gorder: Associate Strategy Director
Hannah Schweitzer: Strategist
Albert Kim, Group Connections Director
Kevin Bautista: Associate Director of Connections
Laura Mayer: Senior Director of Data
Josh Brinkmann: Data Strategist

PRODUCTION: GIFTED YOUTH
Director: Jake Szymanksi & Payman Benz
Exec Producer: Josh Morse
Line Producer: Bernard Rahill
Director of Photography: Carl Herse
Production Designer: Kim Rees

EDITORIAL: THE DEN
Editor: Katie Cali
Assistant: James Bird
EP: Jennifer Mersis
MD: Vic Palumbo
Producer: Carolina Padilla

:15s and CM Social :10s
Editor: Nic Watkins

VFX: JAMM
VFX Supervisor / Lead Flame: Jake Montgomery
Flame Artist: Ryland Bowen
Flame Artist: Patrick Munoz
Flame Artist: Graziella Gandolfi
Flame Artist: Marcus Woods
Flame Artist: Paul Downes
CG Supervisor: Zachary Dimaria
CG Artist: Steven Nelson
CG Artist: Sebastian Mayer
Production Coordinator: Jon Lazar
Senior Producer: Ashley Greyson
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards

COLOR: JAMM
Colorist: Adam Scott
Color Assist: Carver Moore
Color Producer: Jon Lazar

AUDIO POST/SFX: STRING & TINS
Sound Designers: Culum Simpson and Jim Stewart
Foley: Foley Walkers
Audio Producers: Laura-Leigh Smith and Alina Miroshnichenko

MUSIC: WALKER
Music: Walker Music
Managing Director: Sara Matarazzo
Senior EP: Stephanie Pigott
Senior Producer: Danielle Soury

MIX: LIME
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan
Sound Mixer: Matt Miller
Mix Assistant: Ian Connie

CRITICAL MASS
Val Carlson: Chief Creative Officer
Andrew Lavery: Executive Creative Director
Andrew Dolby : Creative Director
Javier Olivares: Assoc. Creative Director
Meghan O’Neill: Assoc. Creative Director
Carla Smith: Assoc. Creative Director
Arion Lapuz: Sr. Art Desinger
Bailey Upper: Designer
Peter Lagosky: Senior Copywriter
Rosie Hutchison: Senior Copywriter
Thomas Turner: Production Design Lead
Adam Dunlop: Assoc. Design Supervisor
Yuri An: Sr. Production Designer
Daisy Swain: Copywriter

Shawn Thompson: VP, Strategy Director
Morgan Yaholnitsky – Strategy Director
Faith Tyrell: Sr. Strategist

Stacia Parseghian: EVP Client Partner
Benedicte Dechaud: VP Client partner
Andrew Burke: Sr. Account Director
Anica Vranjesevic, Sr Account Manager
Carly Barnhart: Account Manager

Sydney Woodman: VP Group Executive Producer
Hannah Thompson: Executive Producer
Lexi Scott: Sr. Project Manager
Vince Varga: Sr. Producer
Ian Wells: Sr. Project Manager
Alyssa Rodrigues : Project manager
Luc Wilson: Assoc Producer
Logan Knight: Project Manager

PARTNER CREDITS
David Azulay, EVP, Omnicom Lead – DIRECTV
Hearts & Science
KERN
Fluent 360