For T-Mobile, Travolta Sings, Bradley Cooper Goofs Around
Tell him more, tell him more ... about 5G!
John Travolta and Scrubs stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison remake "Summer Nights" from Grease as a tribute to T-Mobile's home internet service in a Super Bowl :60 revealed today.
Developed by Panay Films, we get a pleasing pop-culture potpourri, with goofy brand-centric lyrics, bad-dad dance moves and Travolta striking a Saturday Night Fever pose near the end. It's joyously chill and goofy. Dude's star power shines especially bright, and we dig the no-frills approach.
It's Travolta. Spoofing Grease. And himself. In the Super Bowl. With a pair of Scrubs. T-Mobile doesn't need any fancy Booking.com musical stylings to hit all the right notes. While no show-stopper, it works great. Just like 5G. If you can believe that jingle.
Some media view the performance as a tribute to Olivia Newton-John, who starred with Travolta in Grease, and succumbed to cancer six months ago. That feels like a stretch. But if it's not, then in terms of sensitivity, the timing seems odd. Will we see a backlash? T-Mobile declined comment.
The :60 follows a similar 2022 Big Game play from the brand that also starred Braff and Faison. In that one, they performed a reworking of "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story.
Along with T-Mobile and Booking, other SB advertisers leaning bigly into music and nostalgia—always handy tropes!—include Uber One, Bud Light, Doritos and Workday, among others.
A second brand entry, also from Panay, stars Bradley Cooper and his mom, Gloria Campano. Neither sings, but Brad dons T-Mobile threads and tries hard to keep a straight face. (Spoiler: He fails repeatedly.)
