As the preferred social platform for griping about #firstworldproblems, Twitter is the next logical destination for DirecTV's "Settlers" campaign, which is all about accepting a less-than-perfect life (where, among other indignities, you have cable instead of DirecTV).
And indeed, the "Settlers" patriarch from the TV commercials has begun interacting with various celebrities in planned (and paid) bits of banter, wherein the celeb mentions something irritating in his or her life and Jebediah replies with asinine advice.
Check out some of the interactions below:
.@ADAMDEVINE#Settlers welcome any kind of company. I once spent an afternoon chopping wood and speaking with a squirrel.
— Jebediah DTV (@SettlerJebediah) January 25, 2016
.@iamjamiefoxx Just settle for like I do. Our stagecoach was stuck in the mud for 16 hours. You didn't see me tweeting about it. #settlers
— Jebediah DTV (@SettlerJebediah) January 25, 2016
.@JasonBiggs When you're #settlers you get used to delays on the road. There's only so far you can go with a three-legged ox.
— Jebediah DTV (@SettlerJebediah) January 25, 2016The method of disclosure that these were paid interactions is interesting in each case. Adam DeVine bluntly put a #sponsored hashtag in his initial tweet, which might have confused some of his 700,000 followers who wouldn't have known in what sense it was sponsored (though they didn't seem too perturbed).
Jamie Foxx and Jason Biggs, meanwhile, quote-tweeted Jebediah with an #ad hashtag in a subsequent interaction.
Can you believe this guy @settlerJebediah#adhttps://t.co/i1Kw48IToi
— Jamie Foxx (@iamjamiefoxx) January 25, 2016
This guy. #adhttps://t.co/qLnV4smVar
— Jason Biggs (@JasonBiggs) January 25, 2016This kind of invented banter can generally be dicey—it can seem sneakier than a more traditional endorsement. But these three cases seem to have been received in the humor in which they were intended, judging by the handful of consumer engagements with them.
Grey and BigEyedWish coordinated the Twitter work. And Grey also released a new spot in the campaign today, titled "Privacy," which you can see below.