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Rob lowe directv, Rob Lowe is speaking out about the controversy over his hilarious DirecTV ads.

The series of commercials for the satellite company featured the actor portraying various alter-egos, but according to the Council of Better Business Bureaus' National Advertising Division, they contain unsubstantiated claims of superiority and should be discontinued.


"Humor can be an effective and creative way for advertisers to highlight the differences between their products and their competitor's," the NAD acknowledged in its ruling.

However, the NAD added, "humor and hyperbole do not relieve an advertiser of the obligation to support messages that their advertisements might reasonably convey – especially if the advertising disparages a competitor's product."

The bureau launched their investigation at the behest of Comcast, and concluded that some of the commercials made several false claims.

For instance, "Creepy" Rob Lowe's insistence that the company has better signal reliability could not be backed up by facts. Nor could "Painfully Awkward" Rob Lowe's assertion that DirecTV has shorter customer service wait times. Even "Far Less Attractive" Rob Lowe was found to be bending the truth when he suggested the company had better picture and sound quality.

If a company doesn't comply with a NAD recommendation, the case can be referred to the Federal Trade Commission. DirectTV responded by saying that the commercial series was nearing the end of its run anyway, and new ads featuring model Hannah Davis are on the way.

Lowe himself chimed in on the ruling on Wednesday, Tweeting, "Recent events have underlined my belief that for something to be truly original, funny and subversive, there must also be fallout. #Life."

The company is appealing the NAD ruling and in a statement to the Los Angeles Times said that it "continues to believe that the various Rob Lowe advertisements are so outlandish and exaggerated that no reasonable consumer would believe the statements being made by the alter-ego characters are comparative or need to be substantiated."

Rob lowe directv, DirecTV’s ad campaign featuring thesp Rob Lowe’s alter-ego personas — he’s cooler and more confident as a subscriber of the satcaster, while creepy and lame as a cable TV sub — should be discontinued, according to an advertising trade group.

The Council of Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division, ruling on a complaint by Comcast, said DirecTV should discontinue certain claims made in a series of TV commercials featuring Lowe.

Comcast challenged multiple DirecTV claims in the spots, including that “With DirecTV you get 99% signal reliability” and that customers would get the industry’s “best picture quality and sound.”

DirecTV said it would appeal NAD’s findings. The company contended 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.”

NAD said it considered whether the ads at issue implied that DirecTV offers superior signal reliability, picture quality, sound performance, more sports programming, and more prompt installation and service than cable companies, among other factors.

The group said that although “humor can be an effective and creative way for advertisers to highlight the differences between their products and their competitor’s, humor and hyperbole do not relieve an advertiser of the obligation to support messages that their advertisements might reasonably convey — especially if the advertising disparages a competitor’s product.”

Decisions by the NAD, as a voluntary advertising arbiter among participating companies, are not legally binding.

The DirecTV ads — which feature the love theme from “St. Elmo’s Fire,” in which Lowe co-starred — do not cite Comcast specifically. Following its review, NAD said it determined that DirecTV’s testing substantiated its 99% signal reliability claim — but that it recommended the company drop claims that it has better signal reliability, shorter customer-service wait times and better picture and sound quality than cable operators.

In addition, NAD said that the claim “Don’t be like this me. Get rid of cable and upgrade to DirecTV” — which appears at the end of the commercials — conveyed a “comparative and unsupported superiority message.”


The DirecTV last fall was criticized by the International Paruresis Assn. for making fun of lame-Rob-Lowe’s inability to pee in front of others in one spot, calling it insensitive to those who have “shy bladder.”

Rob lowe directv:Rob Lowe's DirecTV Ads Yanked After Comcast Complaint, Like 'em or hate 'em, most of us have seen those quirky commercials Rob Lowe is doing for DirecTV ("Crazy Hairy Rob Lowe," "Peaked in High School Rob Lowe"). But after competitor Comcast complained to the Better Business Bureau that DirecTV couldn't substantiate the claims it makes in the ads, DirectTV is yanking the ads.

Rob Lowe and his alter-egos aren't just funny and a little creepy, but the ads are also being described as misleading.

DirecTV is being urged to pull the ads some feel are downright misleading, reports CBS News correspondent Vladimir Duthiers.

The commercials feature the 51-year-old actor's alter-egos standing alongside satellite providers' competitors while making statements about why they're the better choice.

"I think DirecTV thought, 'We have a great campaign, people are talking about it. It's entertaining people, and it's working. Let's run it until we get the cease and desist," Los Angeles Times media writer Stephen Battaglio told Duthiers.

Comcast filed a complaint Tuesday about the ads, causing consumer watchdog group, the Better Business Bureau, to request DirecTV pull the commercials off the air. The complaint was in response to one of the ads that claim DirecTV has "better signal reliability than cable" and "shorter customer service wait times," which the BBB's National Advertising Division said were "unsupported" claims.

DirecTV couldn't disagree more and responded by saying Lowe's characters, "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."

In fact, the satellite provider saw a spike in subscribers after the ads premiered.

"They were losing subscribers before this campaign came on," Battaglio said. "They gained subscribers in the two quarters where they ran the ads."

Additionally, the commercials have caused quite a buzz among viewers and competitors, which in today's fast paced society is a rarity.

"For every one of those commercials, DirecTV received complaints from some group or another," Battaglio added. "If you can make people stop and watch a commercial today, that is a really big deal."