You may know him as the seven-time Mr. Olympia winner from when you were a gawky half-pint. Or the Hollywood action hero you wanted to be. Or you could've been one of the more than 38 million U.S. citizens he governated for a decade.

In any case, everyone knows Arnold Schwarzenegger. Which has made him perfect for advertising around the world.

Schwarzenegger, now 67, is clearly no stranger to the camera. And he's appeared in countless peculiar ads—many of which you may not have seen, because like other smart A-Listers, he took his commercial talents overseas. And he seemed to hawk any brand that would pay.

In the video above, we've highlighted some of our favorite Arnie ads. Enjoy!

Video edit: Mac Smullen

Specs
Who (from left) Izzy the dog, employee relations; Michael Dub, partner; Sandy Rubinstein, CEO; Benjamin Hordell, partner
What Agency
Where Edgewater, N.J.

Indie shop DXagency happily reports that 90 percent of its business comes from referrals. How is this possible? Well, the digitally focused, full-service agency, which works to drive brand engagement through various channels (especially contests and sweepstakes), says its top priority is keeping clients happy. “Because I was a client, I teach our staff that if a client has already asked you for something, then we’ve missed,” said CEO Sandy Rubinstein, who’s also held senior marketing positions at TVLand and Lifetime. “The idea of hiring an agency is so that a client doesn’t have to think of these details.” The 40-person staff services clients such as Madison Square Garden, DirecTV, HBO and Kmart. Founded a decade ago this month, Edgewater, N.J.-based DXagency swiftly and successfully evolved from music marketing to the general market and was recently named to the Inc. 5000 list.

DirecTV has gotten lots of actors to poke some fun at themselves over the years—notably Charlie Sheen in the Platoon spot. Now, it's Rob Lowe's turn to look hilariously foolish.

A pair of new ads from Grey New York outlandishly show what Lowe is like as a cable customer compared to what he's like as a DirecTV customer. As a cable customer, he's literally falling apart (in the first spot) or a complete pervert (in the second spot). As a DirecTV customer, thankfully, he is neither.

The message? You too can choose not to be a pervert with a combover and a lazy eye. Get DirecTV today! As a nice added bonus, these commercials—directed by Tom Kuntz of MJZ—end with the theme from St. Elmo's Fire. He's come a long way, baby.

CREDITS
Client: DirecTV
Campaign: Versus
Spots: "Less Attractive," "Creepy"
Agency: Grey, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren
Executive Creative Director: Dan Kelleher
Group Creative Directors: Doug Fallon, Steven Fogel
Agency Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich
Agency Producer: Lindsay Myers
Agency Music Producers: Zachary Pollakoff, Amy Rosen
Account: Chris Ross, Beth Culley, Anna Pogosova, Aaron Schwartz, Meredith Savatsky, Eddie Mele
Strategy: Michelle Leo
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Tom Kuntz
Producer: Emily Skinner
Production Supervisor: Daniel Gonzalez
Director of Photography: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Editorial Executive Producers: Sasha Hirschfeld, Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler, Mackenzie Cutler
Assistant Editors: Ryan Steele, Mike Rizzo
Mixer, Sound Designer: Sam Shaffer
Visual Effects Company: Method Studios
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jay Hawkins
Visual Effects Producers: Carlos Herrera, Christa Cox
Casting (OCP): Francine Selkirk, Shooting From the Hip
Casting (VO): Nina Pratt, Jerry Saviola, Avenue 3 Casting

Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler held a press conference alongside colleagues from the Federal Trade Commission and the states attorneys general today to publicly reprimand AT&T for "cramming"—adding fees that customers didn't authorize to phone bills—over the last eight years. It's a $105 million spanking, $80 million of which will go into a restitution fund for consumers. If "cramming" doesn't sound familiar to you, just think of the ringtones you could buy with a text message and have charged to your phone bill a few years ago; those are among the chief culprits. (And yes, the FTC and FCC have dealt with some of the third-party companies exploiting the loophole in SMS purchasing that caused the trouble.)

FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez spoke first. But Wheeler was harsher than his colleagues, dinging AT&T for "deceptively and unfairly billing for unauthorized third-party charges" and saying that he looked forward to working more closely with the FTC. "This is not the last time that we will act jointly," he said. "There is no daylight between us."

Oddly, the payout is characterized as a "settlement," not a fine, presumably meaning AT&T admits no wrongdoing in exchange for the $105 million. The panel assured reporters the outcome was good for consumers. "AT&T has agreed to change their business practices," Wheeler said.

What will they do next? Well, probably more of the same. "There are a lot of other carriers involved in this as well," Wheeler said. "It's $20 million [a year] across all of the wireless providers in America, not just AT&T, and stay tuned about those other wireless providers."

In an emailed statement, AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said that the company had discontinued the premium SMS service that allowed customers to make the disputed purchases. AT&T is stressing the all-the-other-kids-did-it line, which, in fairness, appears to be true. "In the past, our wireless customers could purchase services like ringtones from other companies using Premium Short Messaging Services (PSMS) and we would put those charges on their bills," Richter wrote. "Other wireless carriers did the same."

The FCC has been taking a harder line with telecommunications companies in the recent past. Rather than rubber-stamp the DirecTV/AT&T or Comcast/Time Warner mergers, the agency is demanding copies of the carriage agreements the two cable operators have with content producers like 21st Century Fox, Viacom and Discovery. 

Wheeler has been subject to some serious criticism in the recent past about his own perceived conflicts of interest. He's addressed those concerns in Q&A sessions, but today's session gives us a clearer idea of how and whether he's willing to prove to the public that he's worthy of their trust.

Rob Lowe keeps sinking in DirecTV's campaign.

Having already been introduced to Creepy Rob Lowe and Less Attractive Rob Lowe, now we get to meet Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe. Like his fellow lesser Rob Lowes, Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe has cable instead of DirecTV—which obviously explains the fanny pack, hiked-up pleated khakis, lisp, agoraphobia and weirdly winged hair.

"Don't be like this me," suave Hollywood actor Rob Lowe says at the end, leaving his ungainly doppelgänger cringing at a urinal.

With at least two more spots from Grey New York are on the way, it begs the question: How low can Lowe go?



CREDITS
Client: DirecTV
Agency: Grey NY
Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren
Executive Creative Director: Dan Kelleher
Group Creative Director: Doug Fallon
Group Creative Director: Steven Fogel
Agency Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich
Agency Producer: Lindsay Myers
Agency Music Producer: Zachary Pollakoff, Amy Rosen
Account: Chris Ross, Beth Culley, Anna Pogosova, Aaron Schwartz, Meredith Savatsky, Eddie Mele
Strategy: Michelle Leo
Production Company (location): MJZ LA
Director: Tom Kuntz
Producer: Emily Skinner
Production Supervisor: Daniel Gonzalez
Director of Photography: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Editorial Executive Producer (person & company): Sasha Hirschfeld, Mackenzie Cutler
Editor (person & company): Gavin Cutler, Mackenzie Cutler
Assistant Editor (person & company): Ryan Steele & Mike Rizzo, Mackenzie Cutler
Mixer + Sound Designer (person & company): Sam Shaffer, Mackenzie Cutler
VFX (company): Method Studios, NY
VFX Supervisor (person & company): Jay Hawkins, Method Studios
VFX Producer (person & company): Carlos Herrera & Christa Cox, Method Studios
Casting (OCP): Francine Selkirk, Shooting From the Hip
Casting (VO): Nina Pratt and Jerry Saviola, Avenue 3 Casting
Color: Tim Masick, Company 3

The mini-wave of brands casting gay couples in TV ads this year continues to rise, with the likes of Honey Maid,Cheerios and DirecTV all diving in. More power to them. But Ikea was the first marketer to feature a gay couple in a mainstream commercial. Twenty years ago.

The 1994 spot below, from Deutsch, ran after 10 p.m. in three markets where Ikea then had a significant presence: New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The late-night airing ensured that the ad wouldn't be seen during "family hour" programming. That concession, however, did little to quell the objections of the American Family Association and its leader, the Rev. Donald Wildmon.

Wildmon called for boycotts of Ikea stores, one of which, on Long Island, N.Y., was the target of a bomb threat, which turned out to be unfounded. The retailer, however, continued to air the ad, which was part of a lifestyle campaign featuring different types of consumers (a divorced mom, adopting parents, empty nesters, etc.) that began in 1993.

The creative team behind "Dining Room," including creative director Greg DiNoto, associate cd Kathy Delaney, copywriter Dallas Itzen and art director Patrick O'Neill, are no longer at Deutsch. But O'Neill, who later worked at TBWA\Chiat\Day and now is chief creative officer at blood testing company Theranos, shared his memories of helping to create something that didn't win awards but was truly groundbreaking.



AdFreak: Where did the idea for "Dining Room" come from?
Patrick O'Neill: We would base a lot of our stories on the real people we would see. We'd go to the New Jersey store—in Elizabeth—and because [the ads] were based on real people, we would watch, observe and see how people use the product, who they were, what kinds of things they were buying. And we'd figure which stores were the best ones. And there were a lot of gay couples there. We thought, Why don't we do one? Donny [Deutsch] thought it was a great idea and felt like it was a true representation of Ikea's values, which is they're always accepting of everyone.

So, that store was like your focus group or idea center?
It was. And we figured out where life intersected with furniture. ... You had to understand what was going on in the culture at that time, I thought, versus just doing [ads] in a sort of timeless manner. Divorcees still go there, that kid still gets adopted, and gay couples still go there, you know [laughs]. It just wasn't a typical depiction in media.

What was the shoot like?
A lot of the grips and all the people that were working on the set—you could feel that there was a lot of tension in the air because it was so unusual to see.

Did you shoot it at the store?
Yes.

Who was the director?
Paul Goldman. He had just started directing. [At Deutsch] he worked on the original "It's a big country. Someone's got to furnish it" campaign that was the year before.

How nervous was Ikea going into this?
They believed in it from the beginning. They were never nervous about it.

Did you have to test it?
No.

Did you think at the time that more people would follow in the footsteps of that ad?
I did.

Why didn't that happen?
It's interesting. I think the reason why people remember the ad was because it was done in a way where it was, "Wow, they really did it." We weren't mucking around. It was clear what was going on. And there were bomb threats. There was backlash. There were New York op-eds written about it. I mean, there were all kinds of things happening. In the years that followed—not too long after—Ellen [DeGeneres], she came out. Melissa Etheridge came out. A lot of women came out at the time. So, I think the culture started doing it without it being commercials. But as far as brands, I think they were nervous about it.

Does the groundswell we're seeing now reflect what's going on with state marriage laws?
Yeah. I think it's also that the millennials and younger are very accepting of [gay] marriage. When that is legitimized by a large core of consumers, you can have that in communications because the approval rating for that is much, much higher once you get to a certain age group.

Would a different creative team have done the same thing?
No. ... Look, the way we cast, and had them speak about their relationship, and the premise—it was all based on real stuff. I think the reason it turned out the way it did was all those people working together on it. We knew gay people, and I felt like the lone representative [laughs]. I felt a lot of responsibility making sure I didn't let my people down.

How proud are you of this, ultimately, and is it still up there in your top three ads?
Well, I'm proud of it because it was the first one. It was scary in some ways. Everyone was true to the period, but there was no precedent. And it wasn't a welcoming environment. So, that part of it makes me proud and happy to be part of.

Ah, November: The Christmas decorations are going up, flights home are getting expensive, and networks are going to war with cable providers. It's always an uphill battle with satellite and terrestrial system operators given how terribly they rate in customer service in the first place, so DirecTV is trying to ease into things by informing viewers that they're in danger of losing The Walking Dead in the middle of the season.

The satellite operator picked a novel way to do this: by running ads during The Walking Dead on Sunday evening. This went over great with viewers, obviously:

If @DIRECTV takes off @AMC_TV then I'm canceling my contract with them!!! Wtf, they can't take off my fav show! I need the walking dead!

— America Garcia ⚽ (@americarbd) November 3, 2014

It probably won't help matters for DirecTV, either, that Walking Dead is now outdoing Sunday Night Football in Live+SD (same day) demo viewers, this time for a second week running. On Sunday night, it pulled in 9.6 million adults 18-49, giving the show a 7.6 rating, which is about what you'd get if you combined the demo averages of every new sitcom on broadcast. Maybe a little more, actually.

The deal between DirecTV and AMC expires at the end of the year, halfway through The Walking Dead. The network rarely blinks in carriage negotiations and usually gets its way, with the notable exception of a three-month blackout in 2012 that Dish Network appeared to use as leverage to get a lower settlement in a lawsuit in which it had been previously found guilty of destroying evidence.

This new conflict seems born pretty much exclusively of pricing troubles, although there's a potential legal aspect to this standoff, too. AMC issued a statement on Monday morning declaring that "DirecTV is in violation of our current agreement, and it has dropped AMC in Latin America. We hope to finalize a new agreement quickly but in the meantime," the spokesperson continued, "we think it is important to alert DirecTV customers who care about The Walking Dead that their ability to watch the show on DirecTV is at risk."

Not everyone thinks Rob Lowe's "painfully awkward" commercial for DirecTV is funny.

The Associated Press reported today that members of the International Paruresis Association—which represents people with what is commonly referred to as shy bladder syndrome—are upset with Lowe's depiction of a person who has trouble urinating in public restrooms. They've asked DirecTV to stop airing the spot because they think it is in poor taste, with numerous people writing the satellite provider.

"We don't mind if people have a little fun with it," Steve Soifer, CEO of the association, told the AP. He said that around 7 percent of U.S. citizens suffer from the syndrome. "It's a situation that a lot of people don't understand. In this particular case, the portrayal is making it look ridiculous, that this guy is a loser for having a problem."

Speaking with the news wire, Soifer added, "What if he didn't have a leg or an arm? Are you going to make fun of them?"

But the TV company believes its critics are overreacting. The campaign is attempting to use humor to inspire folks to switch from cable packages to DirecTV.

"The ads will continue to run for the vast majority of viewers who have told us they enjoy the spots and understand that, like all of our commercials, they take place in a fantasy world and are not based in reality," Darris Gringeri, spokesman for DirecTV, told the AP. 

While shy-bladder sufferers debate the offensiveness of Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe, DirecTV is plowing ahead with all sorts of other less-than-ideal Rob Lowes—you know, the ones with cable and not DirecTV.

The latest disturbing specimen is Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe. And thanks to some CGI, he certainly looks like a pathetic weakling. Hopefully Grey New York at some point will have time to do a digital composite of all the subpar Rob Lowes, and we'll get to have a look at CreepyLess AttractivePainfully AwkwardCrazy Hairy Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe.



CREDITS
Client: DirecTV
Spot: "Scrawny Arms"
Agency: Grey, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren
Executive Creative Director: Dan Kelleher
Group Creative Director: Doug Fallon
Group Creative Director: Steven Fogel
Agency Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich
Agency Producer: Lindsay Myers
Agency Music Producer: Zachary Pollakoff, Amy Rosen
Account: Chris Ross, Beth Culley, Anna Pogosova, Aaron Schwartz, Meredith Savatsky, Eddie Mele
Strategy: Michelle Leo
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Tom Kuntz
Producer: Emily Skinner
Production Supervisor: Daniel Gonzalez
Director of Photography: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Editorial Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld, Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler, Mackenzie Cutler
Assistant Editor: Ryan Steele & Mike Rizzo, Mackenzie Cutler
Mixer + Sound Designer: Sam Shaffer, Mackenzie Cutler
VFX: Method Studios, NY
VFX Supervisor: Jay Hawkins, Method Studios
VFX Producer: Carlos Herrera & Christa Cox, Method Studios
Casting (OCP): Francine Selkirk, Shooting From the Hip
Casting (VO): Nina Pratt and Jerry Saviola, Avenue 3 Casting

Grey has gotten a lot of buzz out of its DirecTV campaign featuring oddball versions of Rob Lowe as a cable subscriber. After shooting the first five ads last year, the agency's global chief creative officer, Tor Myhren, thought Lowe might have completed his run. But the actor's zeal for the role convinced the shop to produce another five ads, two of which (see below) have already rolled out this year.

"On set, he's totally engaged," said Myhren. "He's so into it. He's so passionate about it."

That enthusiasm is clear in the interview below—filmed during the last shoot—in which Lowe describes with amusement how he saw people dress up as Super Creepy and Painfully Awkward on Halloween. Not since St. Elmo's Fire in 1985 does he remember being the inspiration for a Halloween costume, which he believes is the ultimate sign of fame.

Lowe also shares what his kids like about the campaign and his favorite character so far.

Also, here's a look at the most recent ads:

To date, Rob Lowe has been the only celebrity to suffer physical indignities in Grey's DirecTV campaign making fun of cable customers. But now he can add three famous supermodels to the mix—Hannah Davis, Chrissy Teigen and Nina Agdal, all of whom are made over to look quite a bit less supermodelish to portray cable users in print ads in the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Check out the series of seven ads below.

Like the Rob Lowe TV spots, this print work comes uncomfortably close to being mean-spirited—i.e., aren't ugly misfits just horrible? But they largely sidestep that charge because of the cartoonish execution. Plus, people tend to give props to any celeb who gamely agrees to look "ugly." (If you actually have shy bladder, though, or if you actually are a lunch lady—Agdal's ugly character—you might actually get pissed.)

We wrote about Snickers's great back cover of the new Swimsuit Issue, too. And interestingly, they're quite similar campaigns. (DirecTV's message is, basically, "You're not you when you have cable.") Perhaps it's no surprise that the two most famous campaigns that urge you to fight against uglier versions of yourself have found creative ways into this particular magazine all about perfection.

Here's everything you need to know about the last 24 hours in advertising, in case you blinked.

Buzzing on Adweek:

Facebook gets a creative new ad format
Cinemagraphs, still images with a subtle moving component, will soon be found more often in the News Feed as advertisers play around with the new ad format. (Adweek)

Agencies hire a slew of executives
Just six weeks into the new year, 14 ad agencies have filled a staggering 19 leadership roles, which according to ad executives and headhunters is a sign that agencies want new ideas and fresh talent. (Adweek)

Omnicom reports gain in Q4
Omnicom Group reported its organic revenue grew 6 percent in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, while net income shot up by nearly 10 percent. (Adweek)

Swimsuit models look different without DirecTV
In the most recent Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, three models channel Rob Lowe's DirecTV spots to demonstrate how they aren't themselves when they have standard cable. (Adweek)

ESPN reveals Super Bowl shark identities
Wieden + Kennedy New York and ESPN revealed the true identities of Katy Perry's Right Shark and Left Shark in the latest "This is SportsCenter" spot. (Adweek)

Why good music is key to a good ad
Jingle Punks CEO Jared Gutstadt and Grey's svp, director of music Joshua Rabinowitz spoke with Adweek about the evolution of music in advertising and how proper song selection is crucial for a successful ad. (Adweek)

50 Shades could make sex toys more mainstream
E.L. James' 50 Shades of Grey books ignited a spark for the sex toy industry, and with the movie hitting theaters this weekend, people within the industry expect sales to keep growing. (Adweek)

New partners join Facebook's ad network
Facebook announced a number of new partners that will be plugged into its Atlas ad network including Publicis and ad tech companies Mediaocean and Merkle. (Adweek)

Around the Web:

Urban Outfitters stocks an offensive tapestry
A new tapestry item from Urban Outfitters, deemed reminiscent of the Holocaust, prompted the Anti-Defamation League to send the company a letter requesting the chain to nix the item. (Business Insider)

The cost of the Brian Williams scandal
Brian Williams' recent factual inaccuracies have not only tanked the news anchor's credibility rating, but could also impact NBC's ad sales. (The New York Times)

Yelp acquires Eat24
Online restaurant review company Yelp got into the food delivery game with its most recent purchase of startup Eat24 for a reported $134 million. (Forbes)

Heinz spices things up with Sriracha ketchup
Heinz debuted its very own Sriracha-flavored ketchup, but The Washington Post argued the move will cause the trendy hot sauce to become too mainstream. (The Washington Post)

Home Depot expects a busy spring
Home Depot announced it would hire an additional 80,000 seasonal employees in anticipation of the busy spring sale season. (Fortune)

A-B InBev debuts malt beverage line
Anheuser-Busch InBev plans to launch three of its cocktail-flavored beers from the Bud Light Mixx Tail line next week. (The Wall Street Journal)

Papa John's finally takes Iggy Azalea seriously
Rapper Iggy Azalea tweeted up a storm to report that a Papa John's employee spread her personal contact information, and Papa John's finally addressed the issue via Twitter. (PR Newser)

IAB says 100 percent ad viewability won't happen
This week the Interactive Advertising Bureau told marketers that 100 percent ad viewability online is an unrealistic goal and should instead strive for closer to 70 percent viewability. (The Wall Street Journal)

Oscar ads sell out
ABC sold out all of its ad slot for the upcoming 87th Annual Academy Awards, with ads running for roughly $2 million, on average. (Media Post)

Industry Shake-Ups: 

CEO out at Lowe Roche
Lowe Roche announced CEO of the agency's Toronto shop Monica Ruffo would step down, which came as a surprise to the staff. (Agency Spy)

Cramer-Krasselt's new creative chief
Craig Markus, previously working at Rage, Grace & Partners, will succeed Larry Hampel as Cramer-Krasselt's new chief creative officer. (Adweek)

Pereira & O'Dell quickly selects new ECD
Pereira & O'Dell promoted Jonathan Woytek from creative director to executive creative director just one day after Jaime Robinson announced she was leaving the shop for Wieden + Kennedy New York. (Agency Spy)

DirecTV doesn't want you to have to look at ugly cable wires and boxes. So, it's putting Hannah Davis on your screen instead (and saying goodbye to Rob Lowe).

Sports Illustrated's 2015 Swimsuit Issue cover girl anchors two new spots for the satellite TV service from Grey New York. In the first ad, she rides a white horse down a tropical beach in a scene vaguely reminiscent of Isaiah Mustafa for Old Spice, offering an otherwise standard pitch for the wireless satellite service. In the second, she's just sitting next to her ride.

There's a twist in both, though, and it's consistent with the brand's history of cranking out solid comedy.

The work replaces DirecTV's long-running Rob Lowe (and his lesser versions) campaign, which was dinged Tuesday by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus for making unsubstantiated comparative claims about cable. (That Comcast worked to ruin everyone's fun is another good reason for consumers to hate that company—even if some of the DirecTV ads weren't the nicest.)

Davis also appeared as a cat lady in a DirecTV print ad in the S.I. Swimsuit Issue. But—spoiler alerts ahead—the TV campaign hits the holy trinity of advertising clichés: run-of-the-mill sex appeal, a funny talking animal and a visual play on words.

It's worth noting, though, that followed to its logical conclusion, the joke is basically saying DirecTV is a horse.

The Weather Company is shaking up its management ranks and bringing in former DISH Network executive Dave Shull to operate a "newly formed, fully integrated division" called The Weather Channel Television Group.

Shull will oversee programming, distribution, broadcast operations, video technology and addressable TV advertising platforms. He'll report to David Kenny, chairman and CEO of The Weather Company. David Clark, president of The Weather Channel, and other executives will report to Shull.

"The landscape is changing, and we are evolving with it," Kenny said in a statement. "This new structure is what we need to win. [Dave's Shull's] breadth of experience will help unite these sometimes disparate disciplines to ensure we're connecting the dots and leveraging all of our assets to the best of our ability."

Shull was most recently chief commercial officer and executive vice president at DISH Network, which dropped The Weather Channel for a time in 2010. Weather also has encountered distribution disputes with several pay TV providers. Last year, DirecTV dropped Weather, only to restore it three months later. The channel remains off Verizon FiOS, which brokered a distribution deal with competitor AccuWeather last month.

The Weather Company portfolio extends beyond the TV network. Weather also owns Weather Underground and WSI, which provides weather data to the media, aviation and energy sectors.

The owners of The Weather Company, which include The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and NBCUniversal, are reported to be looking at their options, including the possible sale of the company. The three acquired Weather in 2008 for a reported $3.5 billion.

DirecTV killed its long-running Rob Lowe campaign in April after more than six months of spots in which the actor introduced pathetic versions of himself—the kind of guy who has cable instead of DirecTV. But now, the campaign is back, with NFL stars stepping into Lowe's shoes but with the setup otherwise basically intact.

In one new spot, we get Eli Manning versus Bad Comedian Eli Manning. In another, it's Tony Romo against Arts & Craftsy Tony Romo. But while Lowe has been replaced, Tom Kuntz has returned as the director.

The Rob Lowe campaign was discontinued following a ruling by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus that some of the claims in the ads (including those about customer satisfaction and quality) were not defensible. These new spots won't have that problem, as they focus on NFL Sunday Ticket, which DirecTV has exclusively. (You'll notice Manning and Romo's dissing of cable is exceedingly broad, too.)

Manning is his typical mix of awkward and charming in his ad, while Romo mostly offers an amusing permagrin. They didn't skimp on the makeup in either spot, which carries a lot of the comedy as well. (Try to ignore the fact that both of these guys will generally be busy on Sundays, and not really in the market for NFL Sunday Ticket.)

Somewhere, Extremely Jealous Rob Lowe is wishing he were still doing this campaign.

Check out a pair of behind-the-scenes videos below.

CREDITS
Client: DirecTV, NFL Sunday Ticket
Agency: Grey, New York

—Spot: "Bad Comedian"
Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren
Group Creative Directors: Steve Fogel, Doug Fallon
Copywriter: Steve McElligott
Art Director: Jerome Marucci
Account Team: Chris Ross, Beth Culley, John Baker, Danielle Weiner, Jake Wanamaker
Agency Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich
Agency Producer: Lindsay Myers
Production Company: Paramount Studios
Director: Tom Kuntz
Producer: Emily Skinner
Director of Photography: Jo Willems
Editor: Gavin Cutler, Mackenzie Cutler
Assistant Editor: Pamela Petruski
Visual Effects: Framestore
Producer: Christa Cox
Principal Talent: Eli Manning

—Spot: "Arts & Craftsy"
Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren
Group Creative Directors: Steve Fogel, Doug Fallon
Copywriter: Kim Nguyen
Art Director: Marques Gartrell
Account Team: Chris Ross, Beth Culley, John Baker, Danielle Weiner, Jake Wanamaker
Agency Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich
Agency Producer: Lindsay Myers
Production Company: Paramount Studios
Director: Tom Kuntz
Producer: Emily Skinner
Director of Photography: Jo Willems
Editor: Gavin Cutler, Mackenzie Cutler
Assistant Editor: Pamela Petruski
Visual Effects: Framestore
Producer: Christa Cox
Principal Talent: Tony Romo

Grey New York plays the height card in a new ad touting DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket.

The commercial stars Randy Moss, a future NFL Hall of Famer mulling a comeback. In the spot, tall Randy has SundayTicket, so he can watch his favorite teams every Sunday no matter where he happens to be. Clearly, this dude rocks. Short Randy, meanwhile, has cable, which doesn't carry the games of his hometown team, so his life, apparently, is not so great.

Reviewers at USA Today and SB Nation find it funny. A number of YouTube commenters, never short on opinions, are predictably weighing in with outrage.

"Here we go again!" says 5f4ohno. "Tall=Positive human being, Short=negative subhuman. Try doing this with any group in the USA and you get crucified. But short people are put on this planet to get shit on. Hello DirecTV! Some of us are getting tired of this bigoted crap known as heightism."

Or, in the more pointed words of Greg: "Welp, guess I'm not good enough for DirecTV because I'm a short man. Will be calling up to terminate my subscription tomorrow. This is like making an ad where a 'Black Rob Gronkowski' is seen as inferior, learn how to advertise without offending your customers if you want money."

LightAbyssion cuts really deep: "Next time DirecTV makes a commercial, use a fat or flat woman to represent inferiority. Don't just mock what's politically correct to insult. Go all out. Otherwise, your company is full of hypocritical cowards."

Full disclosure: I'm 5'8" in three-inch lifts. OK, 5'5". And while the commercial doesn't bother me personally, and I'd dismiss a fair share of its detractors as trolls, I'm surprised that a major corporation would even bother to go to the trouble of producing it in 2015. (In 2010, maybe. In 2005, sure.)

Then again, stirring up a little controversy and the extra press attention may well be the objective. At this point, it's a call from a well-thumbed playbook. Offend some folks, but not too much. ("Petite Randy" is just a little bit controversial, after all).

Indeed, for its part, DirecTV seems pleased. "Randy Moss was one of the tallest receivers to play the game, which of course is the joke," the brand tells AdFreak in a statement. "Besides, these ads obviously take place in an alternative reality, something our viewers understand. The feedback we're getting is the vast majority enjoy them."

In earlier Sunday Ticket commercials, Eli Manning and Tony Romo face off against "lame versions" of themselves, but the approach was too blatantly cartoonish for anyone—save bad comedians and die-hard arts and crafts fanatics—to take offense. And the whole lesser-men-have-cable concept is born of DirecTV's run of ads starring Rob Lowe as ugly, creepy and awkward, which fired up plenty of viewers, too.

Moving forward, it would probably be wise for advertisers and agencies creating humorous scenarios to bear in mind that derogatory depictions of most aspects of human physicality—height, weight, ideals of "beauty"—are out of bounds (Didn't 1977 teach us anything?). Marketers that don't play by the rules risk being swiftly penalized in the arena of popular opinion, even if they win the game.

Grey New York goes back to the future for DirecTV, revisiting a concept the satellite broadcaster introduced seven years ago in commercials from Deutsch.

Those original spots, directed by Christopher Guest, took place in a conference room and focused on the antics of some smug, inept and less-than-customer-centric executives at Cable Corp., a bland, soulless cable conglomerate. The last ad in the series aired in 2012.

This new iteration, directed by Hungry Man's Bryan Buckley, retains the wry humor and some of the actors from the earlier campaign. In fact, it's packed with familiar faces: John Michael Higgins, Jeffrey Tambor, Jennifer Coolidge and Fred Willard.

The first two spots posit a merger scenario. It's a questionable deal, we're told, because Cable Corp.'s partner, CableWorld, stinks—literally. "I used to work there. I had to breathe through my mouth the whole time," Higgins says at one point.

As always, he and Coolidge give solid comic performances, and Willard's a hoot as CableWorld's boss, who got "too messed up last night" to bring any new ideas to the table. As for Tambor, well, his resemblance to Rudy Giuliani is kind of disturbing. (Recent DirecTV ad star Rob Lowe would fit right in with this bunch.)

The storyline feels a tad meta, perhaps awkwardly so, given DirecTV's recent acquisition by AT&T. Still, the ads are clearly poking fun at big cable hookups, like Charter's deal with Time Warner, and succeed well enough in that regard.

The old gang can still bring the funny. Alas, comparison with the previous work is inevitable. And ultimately, the reboot reminds me of satellite reception on a windy day—it's just not as crisp and bright as it used to be.

AT&T is ready to roll out its first advertising product since it closed its acquisition of DirecTV three months ago.

AT&T AdWorks, the telecom giant's advertising sales wing (which now includes DirecTV's advertising operations) has partnered with Opera Mediaworks to offer clients the ability to have the same campaign run across television and mobile.

"The industry has been talking about cross-screen for years, and the screen that's always been conspicuously absent is the TV screen," Mike Welch, head of strategy and product at AT&T AdWorks, told Adweek.  "For the first time, certainly at scale, we're now able to tie a specific target household on TV with the mobile devices associated with that same target household."

The trial—which is currently offered to three unnamed Fortune 500 companies—links AT&T's 12 million addressable TV homes with the mobile devices associated with those homes, regardless of their wireless carrier. Welch says that one of those three has completed their campaign while the two others are in various stages of development. AT&T plans to take the product to market during the first half of next year.

"Integrated marketing across TV, smartphones and tablets puts influential new tools in the hands of brands and agencies. They can now tell a seamless story to their target audiences at home and on the go," said Mahi de Silva, CEO, Opera Mediaworks, in a statement.

Opera Mediaworks can engage more than 285 million mobile subscribers from major U.S. wireless carriers. Welch says the program will be able to use Opera's location data—the majority of Opera's ad-serving is via mobile apps—to tie ad exposure across the screens to actual physical location data. Those using the apps are opting-in to share that data.

"As eyeballs shift away from a TV screen on to mobile devices, we're able to find those consumers that are still within that advertisers target audience," said Welch.

Grey celebrated its performance at the Cannes Lions in June with leather, whips and chains. The WPP Group agency hosted an S&M-themed "Fifty Shades" bash on the roof of the JW Marriott, high above the shimmering Mediterranean.

The party began late Thursday night and ended some time Friday morning. Dancers dressed as dominatrices undulated onstage to a pulsing electronic beat that echoed off the bustling Croisette below. Tipsy leaders from the advertising, entertainment and tech industries jostled one another to enter a photo booth to have their pictures taken—often with other partygoers in salacious group shots—on a four-poster bed fitted with black silk sheets. Those images were instantly beamed onto a giant screen above the outdoor dance floor. "The vibe was buzzing and the energy was off the charts," recalls Grey worldwide creative chief Tor Myhren.

When word began spreading that Grey had won more than 100 Lions at the festival, "Every single person on that roof was screaming, hugging and losing their minds," Myhren says.

The soiree was jammed with hundreds of revelers, filled well beyond capacity, and even Cannes CEO Philip Thomas was stuck downstairs, denied entry by the Marriott's security detail. Thomas texted Myhren, begging the CCO to intercede so he could join the rowdy fun. "At that moment, it struck me how huge this night was," says Myhren. "It was the night we put Grey's global creative reputation on the map. Not just in New York or London, but every corner of the world."

Grey's impressive week saw the network win 113 Lions, triple its take from the previous year, and an agency record. The final tally: 21 gold (25 if you count its Innovation and Product Design trophies, two in each category), 36 silver and 48 bronze. The network's efforts merited four Grand Prix statuettes: two for Volvo's "LifePaint" and one each for Volvo's "The Greatest Interception Ever" and SoundCloud's "Berlin Wall of Sound." While Grey's WPP sibling Ogilvy & Mather won 10 more Lions overall, tops for the festival, it failed to score a single Grand Prix.

For Grey, perhaps the most significant aspect of the performance was the fact that offices in 18 countries scored across 20 diverse categories, including film, radio and outdoor, but also cutting-edge disciplines such as mobile and creative data. "No one at Grey, if the truth be known, thought that we would have a showing of that magnitude," says Grey Group CEO Jim Heekin.

Grey also netted three gold Clio Awards: two for SoundCloud out of its Düsseldorf, Germany, office, and one for the Ministry of Tourism & Transport for the country of Ecuador from Maruri Grey. Counting silvers and bronzes, Grey offices secured a total of 12 Clios.

Ultimately, 2015 represented the culmination of Heekin's decade-long quest—in tandem with Myhren, now in his second full year leading global creative—to transform the 98-year-old agency from an also-ran into an industry leader. This marks the second time in three years that Adweek has named Grey its Global Agency of the Year. When the network scored that honor in 2013, "it was about two big things," Heekin says, "[winning] Gillette and the inordinate success of our New York and London agencies. In '15, the difference is the depth and breadth of what we have. We've had five or six big multinational account wins—big, famous brands. And creatively, it's coming from everywhere. It's not just London and New York. We are deeper and broader in terms of talent and the number of offices that have gotten on the success train. That's the difference. To me, that's the biggest thing."

Industry insiders describe Heekin, 66, a straight-shooting, hard-charging second-generation agency leader, as the consummate account guy, with a genius for new business acquisition and client retention, and an abiding respect for creative that few "suits" in the business display. Myhren, 23 years younger, is viewed as an affable, cheeky creative leader, whose goofy music videos—including an ABBA-inspired song-and-dance routine roasting Heekin for his 10 years at Grey—have become legendary. Those who know Myhren say he's not afraid to crack the whip—like one of those Fifty Shades Cannes dancers—in his drive for perfection. Twice a year, he convenes a Creative Council of top creative directors from around the network to rank every office based on a point system, and he constantly challenges poor performers to improve.

Above all, colleagues say, Heekin and Myhren are intensely focused, driven leaders who inspire their teams to exceed expectations. "They took, not a second-rate but a third-rate agency, and turned it into a powerhouse," notes industry consultant Avi Dan. "The job the two of them did—I don't recall anything like this in the 30 years I've been involved in advertising."

Making global strides

Along with its creative triumphs, Grey enjoyed a robust new-business performance across all regions this year, adding global assignments in high-profile pitches from Emirates Airline (Grey led a WPP team christened Team Air), Motorola and Pandora Jewelry.

"We went to Grey to help Pandora establish itself as an affordable luxury-jewelry brand" as opposed to a "charm-bracelet brand," says Charisse Ford, Pandora's CMO. "Grey pitched the concept of 'The Art of You,' the idea of the consumer expressing herself every day through her jewelry." That campaign, launched in April, "helped shift the perception of the brand across key purchase drivers. We have seen increased engagement in social and tripled our earned media expectations."

Myhren cites Emirates as a prime example of the global network flexing its muscle. "Account and strategy were led out of London, and I oversaw the creative," he says. The team "brought [the pitch] to life creatively in parallel paths: one from New York and one from London. We often do this, where we create two totally different campaigns with zero overlap. Then, several days before the pitch, we either combine the best of both worlds or present both ideas separately." In this case, Grey went in with both concepts blazing, making its final presentation with WPP CEO Martin Sorrell on hand to deliver opening remarks. "We finished early and were in and out in 90 minutes," Myhren says. "Pitches are weird, and you never know. But I had a hunch we'd win this one, and we did."

Grey also expanded its relationship with several existing clients. Over the summer, the New York office leveraged its standing as lead agency for DirecTV to add a campaign touting the AT&T/DirecTV union, and was ultimately tapped to handle the new AT&T Entertainment division. Separately, the network picked up an estimated $200 million in business from longtime client Procter & Gamble when the company moved Gillette's Venus, Braun and Art of Shaving assignments from BBDO. "That was a tremendous source of pride for the agency," says Myhren. "For P&G to show that kind of faith in us [without a formal pitch]—that was huge."

Other additions from new and existing accounts in various global offices included Vodafone, General Mills, Fidelity, Lego, Walmart, LendingTree and Walt Disney. There was just one notable defection: Olive Garden, which will be off the books in early 2016.

All told, Grey's worldwide revenue rose 5 percent in 2015 to just over $800 million, no easy feat for a network its size. Digital revenue rose more than 20 percent compared to 2014.

Shoring up its global team, Grey added or promoted numerous executives. One of the most prominent leadership moves came as 2015 began, with Andreas Dahlqvist, a key driver on McCann's General Motors team, taking the CCO reins at Grey's New York flagship, freeing Myhren to concentrate on his global role (though he continues as N.Y. president).

"I'm seeing a real need to leap forward again. Big clients are asking for a new way to go to market, and I think we're extremely well poised to take on that challenge," says Dahlqvist. "Our opportunity is to move past just telling a story for a brand to really figuring out how we create stuff that has a true value to people."

Meanwhile, in London, strategy chief Lucy Jameson was promoted to CEO, with Nils Leonard moving to chairman while retaining his CCO title. "For us it's all about culture—developing our own culture, decoding our clients' cultures and helping them make more impact in popular culture," Jameson says. Echoing Dahlqvist, she adds: "If we are going to be more impactful in culture, we have to find new ways to be entertaining and/or useful. So, next year, I'd like to see us diversifying even further beyond our current capabilities."

It's all about competitive spirit, agree Grey leaders. "Grey is built with people who have fighter mentalities, and we're actually at our best when we have something to push up against," says North American CEO Michael Houston. "In 2015, that thing we pushed up against was size and traditional work. We wanted to demonstrate that size and scale could be meaningful in a creative organization."

Moving ahead, Grey vows to keep pushing to beat the competition into submission—creatively speaking, of course—at Cannes and beyond.

Check out this gallery of Grey's most memorable work.

This story first appeared in the Dec. 7 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Specs
Current gig Chief commercial officer, Discovery Communications
Previous gig Evp and chief revenue and marketing officer, DirecTV
Age 54

Adweek: You've been on the job for two months. What are your priorities?
Paul Guyardo: It all starts with the business objectives that you're trying to achieve as a company. For Discovery, not unlike DirecTV, it's about sustained high single-digit revenue growth and profit growth. So everything I try to do has to be looked at through that lens. There's three different strategies that can perpetuate that. One is to do what you can to keep people in the MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) ecosystem, and mitigate cord cutting and cord shaving. So pursuing our TV Everywhere agenda is a big initiative.

Will last week's launch of the Discovery Go app help keep these customers?
All the research I've seen indicates that cable and satellite customers are much more satisfied when anything they can see on their big screen can be seen on any screen, anytime, anywhere. They feel like that's a great value, and are much more inclined to pay their $80 or $100 if they can do that.

What are the other two strategies?
Two is continuing to grow ad sales in what has obviously become a very challenging environment. And the third initiative is Discovery Digital Networks, which has done a fabulous job of connecting with millennials, delivering over 200 million views a month, 23 million YouTube subscribers. Our goal there is seeing if there's a way to monetize those views.

While you're trying to satisfy current subscribers with TV Everywhere, are you also looking at OTT products to entice cord-cutters?
Not so much enticing them, but finding OTT products that can complement the MVPD ecosystems and perhaps sit on top of them. One of the many great things about Discovery is it has these passionate superfans in so many different genres and categories. So one of the things we're exploring is whether there are narrow and deep OTT products that aren't necessarily going to replace your cable subscription, but can be a nice complement to it.

Discovery has made a huge international push and you're heading up global licensing. What opportunities do you see there?
One of things that we're in the exploration stage of right now is this notion of location-based entertainment, and if there's something there. We already have one very successful partnership with Princess Cruises, called Discovery at Sea. It's this fantastic experience, where from the moment you get on the boat, you are immersed into all of these different Discovery experiences. That's one of the many things that we're looking at in terms of how we take all this incredible IP and all these great brands and franchises and monetize them in other ways.

At DirecTV, you always encouraged candor from your employees. Have you continued that at Discovery?
Absolutely. I can't tell you the number of times I have said in the last weeks, "Push back if you disagree." I think that's very important for your organization to know—that they need to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. That's one of the many lessons I learned at 34 working for Barry Diller [as evp of television and marketing for Diller's HSN], and it has stuck with me for many years.

This story first appeared in the Dec. 7 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.