Bruce Willis to appear in Sky Broadband campaign

By Maisie McCabe, campaignlive.co.uk, Friday, 31 August 2012 12:50PM

Bruce Willis is to star in a TV ad for Sky Broadband, as BSkyB ramps up the marketing for its internet service in the face of competition from Virgin Media and YouView partners TalkTalk and BT.

Bruce Willis: (picture credit: Gage Skidmore)

In the new ad, by WCRS, Willis stars as a "demanding" version of himself and storms into the headquarters of his broadband provider after he exceeds his download limit when streaming one of his films.

Willis is carrying a laptop with a pop-up message saying, ‘Download Limit Exceeded – Additional charges apply’ and he becomes distressed when it is suggested he watches the film in lower quality.

The TV ad then encourages customers to demand "high standards" from their broadband service and promotes the fact that the Sky Broadband Unlimited service does not have a download limit nor does it limit users' broadband speed during peak-time.

The Sky Broadband TV ad also reminds viewers that Sky's customers have free access to The Cloud, the Sky-owned network of tens of thousands of public Wi-Fi hotspots across the UK.

Willis is the latest Hollywood actor to feature in a Sky ad campaign and follows Dustin Hoffman, who appeared in a launch ad for Sky Atlantic, and Kate Winslet, who appeared in an ad for Sky Movies.

The TV ad featuring Willis was directed by Bryan Buckley at Hungry Man. The editor was John Smith at The Whitehouse, sound was by Grand Central and post-production was by Finish.

The Sky Broadband ad campaign, planned and bought by MediaCom, starts tomorrow (1 September) and also includes print and outdoor ads by brand agency Venture 3.

The print activity includes a special and exclusive winding ad running over the first 26 pages of The Times newspaper tomorrow. Sky Broadband will be the only advertiser on those pages.

Lyssa McGowan, brand director for home communications products at Sky, said: "Having Bruce take on a stereotypical celebrity persona adds a sense of fun to the campaign, ands at the same time serves to highlight the fact that customers deserve a broadband package that is truly unlimited."

Sky Broadband has also signed a £4m deal to sponsor drama on ITV including the upcoming 'Mrs Biggs' and 'Mr Selfridge', as part of its promotion of its unlimited and out-of-home broadband.

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This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk