NFL Hero Travis Kelce Gets 'Overly Direct' for DirecTV

“What do you call a guy in face paint who can’t get the game? A clown.”

Travis Kelce gets delightfully disdainful in funny work breaking today from DirecTV.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end takes over for thespian Brian Cox, who appeared as the brand’s “Overly Direct Spokesperson” a few months ago. Now, Travis plays an “Overly Direct Sportsperson.” His teammate, defensive tackle Chris Jones, crashes the party—and we do mean CRASHES!—in the :55 below.

Cox seemed grouchy and aggressive. Kelce, ever dismissive of those who don’t watch NFL games his way (on DirectTV), engages in some wanton destruction. Both performances address media fragmentation, portraying the satellite and streaming service as the ultimate stress-free aggregator of premium content.

Jake Syzmanski (Jury Duty) directed the spots in brisk, sitcom style, and TikTok creator Reece Feldman (aka @GuywithaMovieCamera) will contribute to the initiative.

“Our previous campaign featuring Brian Cox was all about showing people how they’re compromising on their TV,” Mark Winters, creative director at TBWAChiatDay, which developed the initiative, tells Muse. “The challenge was, how do we adapt the work into a campaign that does the same thing—but for all the ways people compromise on football? We decided we would take our ‘Overly Direct Spokesperson’ and turn him into an ‘Overly Direct Sportsperson.’ Now we just had to figure out who that should be.”

Casting Kelce made sense “because he knows a thing or two about sports leadership,” Winters says. “But secondly, he allowed us to take the ‘directness’ that Brian had, which was a little more acerbic and withering, and re-examine it through a whole new sporty personality.”

Initially, however, the team worried a bit about the two-time Super Bowl champ taking over the lead after Cox’s memorable turn.

“Travis is a good 8 inches taller than Brian Cox. Nevertheless, those are big shoes to fill for someone who isn’t a professional actor,” says agency creative director Ryan Buckley. “We were actually blown away by Travis’ charisma on camera. We got a sense of it after seeing his SNL performance—but you never know. Everybody was laughing on set after the second shot of the day. That’s when we knew we had a fun campaign on our hands.” (Now, maybe Taylor Swift will be the guy’s friend.)

As for the future of the “Overly Direct” concept, “We’re playing it close to the chest for now,” says Winters. “We’re very happy with this construct. ‘Directness’ is such an interesting-yet-simple approach that uniquely belongs to DirecTV. And the ability to bring more and more people into the ‘Overly Direct’ role makes it endlessly flexible.”

CREDITS

CLIENT 
Vince Torres: Chief Marketing Officer
Kelly Jo Sands: SVP, Digital & Marketing
Kendall Thaker: VP, Brand & Creative
Sheri Holmes: AVP, Advertising & Creative Services  
Jenn Wang: Director, Advertising 
Ty Tanioka: Senior Manager, Advertising

TBWACHIATDAY LA
Creative 
Renato Fernandez: Chief Creative Officer
Jason Karley: Executive Creative Director
Mark Winters: Creative Director
Ryan Buckley: Creative Director
Dylan Cimo: Senior Copywriter  
Jono Moore: Senior Art Director
Lex Singer: Senior Copywriter
Laura Dickie: Senior Art Director
Rachel Findlay: Art Director
Jessica Nugent: Copywriter 
Gregory Ballif : Copywriter
Sumner Mahaffey: Art Director
Bruno Regalo: Chief Design Officer 

Production 
Anh-Thu Le: Executive Director of Production
Alicia Portner: Senior Producer
Dena Moore: Executive Art Producer
Ted Copeland: Art Producer
Dessiah Davis: Director of Traffic Operations
Marian Cabasso: Traffic Operations Manager
Robin Rossi: Director of Business Affairs
Emily Machtinger: Senior Business Affairs Manager 
Eliane Rodriguez: Talent Payment Manager
Nick Huynh: Finance Budget Manager

Account
Erin Riley: CEO
Matt Theisen: Group Brand Lead
Emily Gill: Brand Director
Carlos Quintanilla: Management Supervisor
Dalton Butler: Brand Executive
Justin Rocha: Brand Executive
Lawrence Gonzales: Project Manager

Strategy 
Jen Costello: Chief Strategy Officer
Katie Acosta: Group Strategy Director
Sheida Karami: Associate Strategy Director
Hannah Schweitzer: Senior Strategist
Kevin Anthony Bautista: Associate Director of Connections
Laura Mayer: Senior Director of Data
Josh Brinkmann: Senior Data Strategist

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Gifted Youth 
Jake Szymanski: Director
Josh Morse: Executive Producer
Cat Craven-Griffiths: Head of Production
Bernard Rahill: Producer
Director of Photography: Jo Willems 
EDITORIAL: Arcade 
Editorial: Arcade Edit
Editor: Geoff Hounsell
Assistant Editor: Mitch Mitchell
EP: Crissy DeSimone
HOP: Megan Dahlman
Senior Producer: Alexa Berman

VFX: Parliament VFX
John McIntosh: Creative Leads
Nathan Kane: Creative Leads
Philip Ineno: VFX Supervisor
 
Creative Team: 
Adam Deutsch
Andy Mower
Dan Adams
Damien Cho
Daniel Miller
James Cudahy
Jay Lee
Kathleen Kirkman
Taner Besen

Production Team: 
Anna Kravtsov
Kate Matos
Lexi Stearn
Mike Cimino
Sebastien Le Coz
 
COLOR: The Mill London 
Philip Hambi: Colorist
Dan Hill: Producer 

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

SOUND DESIGN: STRING & TINS 
Gez Lloyd: Sound Design
Nigel Mannington: Sound Design
Culum Simpson: Sound Design
Kaspar Broyd: Sound Design 
Eimear Ní Ghuaire: Audio Post Production

MIX: LIME STUDIOS 
Susie Boyajan: Executive Producer
Cassie Underwood: Associate Producer 
Matt Miller: Sound Mixer
Ian Connie: Assistant Mixer 

PHOTOGRAPHY RETOUCHING: DIEGO SPERONI
Diego Speroni: Digital Artist
Francisco Speroni: Digital Assistant
Freddy Fabris: Digital Producer

PHOTOGRAPHY: TOMMY GARCIA 
Tommy Garcia: Photographer

PARTNER CREDITS
David Azulay, EVP, Omnicom Lead – DirecTV