Hi. I'm Lying Out My Ass Rob Lowe....
 

DirecTV getting bitch slapped by Comcast for "deceptive advertising."

Story:

Hi, I'm Rob Lowe, and I have cable."

"And I'm deceptive advertising Rob Lowe, and I have DirecTV."

Following a Comcast complaint, the Better Business Bureau this week recommended that DirecTV discontinue its hilarious ad campaign featuring actor Rob Lowe, because the satellite TV company couldn't substantiate many of the claims made in the commercials.

DirecTV clams in the spots that its service gets 99% signal reliability, up to 1080p HD programming, better picture and sound quality than cable, more sports programming than its rivals and shorter customer service wait times than its cable competitors. It also said it was rated No. 1 in customer satisfaction.

The ads feature Lowe playing various awkward versions of himself, including a Rob Lowe with scrawny arms, "painfully awkward" Rob Lowe, "super creepy" Rob Lowe, "far less attractive" Rob Lowe and "meathead" Rob Lowe.

At the end of the commercials, the normal, DirecTV version of Lowe says, "Don't be like this me. Get rid of cable and upgrade to DirecTV."

In most cases, the Better Business Bureau National Advertising Division review board agreed with Comcast and urged DirecTV to pull or modify the ads.

For instance, the NAD found no supporting evidence to substantiate the "far less attractive" Rob Lowe commercial's claim that DirecTV has better picture and sound quality than cable. "Scrawny arms" Rob Lowe claimed DirecTV has more sports programming, but the NAD said that was also unsupported.

The review board also said DirecTV failed to explain how it arrived at its customer service claims. The NAD even took issue with the commercials' statement "don't be like this me," because it "conveyed a comparative and unsupported superiority message."

It did, however, find that DirecTV's message of 99% signal reliability and "up to 1080p" picture were solid.

DirecTV is appealing the claim that the ads are deceptive.

In a statement, the company said it "continues to believe that the various Rob Lowe advertisements are so outlandish and exaggerated that no reasonable consumer would believe that the statements being made by the alter-ego characters are comparative or need to be substantiated."

According to a report in Variety, DirecTV has stopped airing the Lowe ads because the company had moved on to another ad campaign.

This isn't the first time DirecTV has been charged with false or misleading advertising.

The Federal Trade Commission ruled in March that the satellite company failed to make it clear that its $19.95-a-month plan requires two-year contract is required, and that customers must proactively cancel the free premium channels like HBO and Showtime that they get during the first three months of the package.

Link to story:
http://www.kmbc.com/money/directv-to...inkId=13415653

Whatever it takes to get those blasted commercials off the air, I say go for it!

Any sat TV has far better signal than cable.

Cable relies on old lines with a **** ton of signal noise they refuse to replace.

DTV shouldn't pull the adds, even though they suck. They should go to bum-**** nowhere and compare cable and DTV signals and clarity...

this

Unless a cloud goes over your house.

there is negligible difference in picture quality between coax cable and satellite. Fiber is marginally better. The only major differnec would be compression on a cable system, if used.

Of course with satellite you have the whole weather thing...

DirectTV has partially corrected this issue. It is still present but takes a lot more to disrupt signal then when they first came out. My roommates had it a couple years back and I was honestly surprised at the reliability. It really had to be raining cats and dogs for it to go down.

Too bad. It was the best acting Rob Lowe has ever performed

DirecTV should also own up to the fact that there's almost no 60 FPS content on their service.

I don't know why they switched but I haven't seen a 60 FPS broadcast in ages. Everything is 30 FPS.

Huh. To me, it's pretty obvious that DirecTV rules the world when it comes to sports programming, and it's pretty common knowledge that cable companies compress their signals, which degrades quality. (Whether that's perceptible by humans is debatable though.)

I've never understood the whole signal going out issue with satellite. Maybe my installation is just awesome, but I've probably seen an average of 2 outages a year that last 30-60 seconds.

Same. I loved DirecTV. Great customer service, good support, never had an issue with a dish going out of service.....but then again, I live in SoCal....we only have one season here....the good one.

The only time I lose signal with DirecTV is if I get snow build up on my dish. Thunderstorms and heavy snow don't knock it out any more.

I switch people from cable to dish and directv every day and there is almost always a massive difference in picture quality. Even in homes that mediacom replaced the homes wiring.

Not sure how comcast stacks up, but the difference between mediacom and either dish company is huge.

Same here