The Slowskys

Last updated
Bill Slowsky in front of his computer, attempting to download a file using his DSL connection. This was also a splash screen for the Slowskys website, and as a 30 second commercial. Slowcam.gif
Bill Slowsky in front of his computer, attempting to download a file using his DSL connection. This was also a splash screen for the Slowskys website, and as a 30 second commercial.

"The Slowskys" are a national television advertising campaign for Comcast Cable's Xfinity broadband Internet service. [2] The ads feature an animatronic turtle couple, Bill and Lisa Slowsky. The ads are based on the idea that DSL, which Xfinity claims is slower than their service, is only fast enough for people who like things very slow. In the television ads, the two turtles are usually shown together explaining why they are so happy with DSL service, and that if they got Xfinity, it would be far too fast for them.

The characters were created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco, produced by RSA, puppeteered by Stan Winston. The campaign won the gold Effie Award in 2007. [3]

TheSlowskys.com was a character blog on which everything slow is celebrated. Recently however, the blog was taken down and replaced by a peaceful, permanent flash widget that included their commercials, downloads, and merch. The blog also redirected to Lisa's Blog when you go to the previous archives on the Slowskys website on archive.org.

In the 2013 ad series, this time targeted to Comcast Business, the Slowskys, Bill and Lisa, have a diner filled with DSL Internet. This also introduced Kevin, one of the workers. It was a 2 commercial series. [4] [5]

A knockoff of The Slowskys by Canadian cable provider Shaw Communications is called The Snailskis. [6] Another knockoff of The Slowskys is the No Shells Pistachios promotion which is similar to The Slowskys. [7]

In the 2011 ad series, A couple commercials compared Verizon Fios and AT&T Internet, and Qwest buying CenturyLink. [8] These were only aired on TV and shown on other portfolios. [9] There were also comic strips of the Slowskys during this period. [10] [11]

Comedian Andrew Donnelly is the voice of Bill Slowsky and actress (and former member of The Groundlings) Rachael Harris provides the voice for Lisa. Son Bill Slowsky, Jr. (featured in a reboot campaign starting in May 2019) is voiced by musician Lucas Grabeel.

When the Slowsky fad reached its peak, the Slowskys Website created a fictional campaign in which the Slowsky couple traveled around their block in an old fashioned political circuit. On top of their vehicle, multiple bullhorns would amplify the Slowsky's voices so that people could hear them. The advertising video showed the Slowskys in the vehicle, and with Bill screaming "BE STILL WITH BILL!", much to Lisa's annoyance, with "Hail to the Chief" playing in the background. [12] [13] The party even offered membership cards, [14] sold merchandise, and requested slogans for their platform.

In the 2019 ad series, in promotion for World Turtle Day, Bill Jr. reveals that he is a big fan of the speed and convenience offered by Xfinity and its service-related smartphone app, leading to his father ending each ad with blunt dismissals (such as "I'll pass" and "I'd rather not") of his son's impassioned advocacy for added speed. The official Xfinity Twitter account got taken over by Bill Slowsky Jr. on the same day. [15]

As of now, 2 commercials are "partially" lost, including a audio file of a Slowskys commercial being different from the Comcast "Rabbit" commercial which is found, but the"Turtle.mp3" file is locked due to not logging in to Effie.com or a major bug in the audio player. [16]

A tweet posted by one of the Slowskys directors shared a video of how the Slowskys were puppeteered.

The entire Comcast Slowskys portfolio is on the Effie.com website, but you need a subscription to unlock it.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comcast</span> American multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate

Comcast Corporation, incorporated and headquartered in Philadelphia, is an American multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate. The corporation is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue. It is the third-largest pay-TV company, the second-largest cable TV company by subscribers, and the largest home Internet service provider in the United States. In 2023, the company was ranked 51st in the Forbes Global 2000. Comcast is additionally the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider. It provides services to U.S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states and the District of Columbia. As the owner of the international media company NBCUniversal since 2011, Comcast is also a high-volume producer of feature films for theatrical exhibition and television programming, and a theme park operator. It is the world's third-largest telecommunications company by revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaw Communications</span> Former Canadian communications company

Shaw Communications Inc. was a Canadian telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Television Company, Ltd. by JR Shaw in Edmonton. The company was acquired by and amalgamated into Rogers Communications in 2023; most operations were rebranded to the Rogers brand beginning in July of that year, although they are still operational.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energizer Bunny</span> Commercial mascot

The Energizer Bunny is the mascot of Energizer batteries in North America. It is a pink mechanical toy rabbit wearing sunglasses and blue and black striped flip-flops that beats a bass drum bearing the Energizer logo.

The "Stand By Your Ad" provision (SBYA) of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, enacted in 2002, requires candidates in the United States for federal political office, as well as interest groups and political parties supporting or opposing a candidate, to include in political advertisements on television and radio "a statement by the candidate that identifies the candidate and states that the candidate has approved the communication". The provision was intended to force political candidates running any campaign for office in the United States to associate themselves with their television and radio advertising, thereby discouraging them from making controversial claims or attack ads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ad Council</span> American nonprofit organization

The Advertising Council, commonly known as Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements or PSAs on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations and agencies of the United States government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachael Harris</span> American actress and comedian (born 1968)

Rachael Harris is an American actress and comedian. She is known for her numerous acting roles, such as starring as Dr. Linda Martin in the Fox/Netflix series Lucifer, as Nora Parker in the Disney+/Hulu series Goosebumps (2023), her role in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series, and as a guest star on numerous TV shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xfinity</span> American cable provider

Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications business segment and division of Comcast Corporation. It is used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company. The brand was first introduced in 2010; prior to that, these services were marketed primarily under the Comcast name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roku, Inc.</span> American technology company

Roku, Inc. is a U.S. listed company founded by Anthony Wood in 2002. It runs a streaming service through Roku-branded streaming players and smart TVs, supporting both advertising and subscription models on its platform. Roku tops U.S. streaming TV distribution, reaching households with an estimated 120 million people. Outside the U.S., the company operates in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and several Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">INSP (TV network)</span> American digital cable and satellite TV channel

INSP is an American digital cable television network that features primarily westerns and is headquartered in Indian Land, South Carolina - a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Verizon High Speed Internet is a digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet service offered by Verizon. It allows consumers to use their telephone and Internet service simultaneously over the same telephone line while benefiting from Internet connection speeds significantly faster than dial-up. This service was launched in 1998 in the North Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. areas, when Verizon was Bell Atlantic. Today, this service is available in all of Verizon's service area. It was originally known as Infospeed DSL and then Verizon Online DSL until it was changed to its current name in 2007 to avoid lawsuits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet in the United States</span> Overview of the Internet in the United States of America

The Internet in the United States grew out of the ARPANET, a network sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense during the 1960s. The Internet in the United States in turn provided the foundation for the worldwide Internet of today.

<i>Batman</i> OnStar commercials American film

The Batman OnStar commercials were a series of six television commercials featuring comic book superhero Batman, created by ad-agency Campbell-Ewald and based on the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman film series, airing from 2000 to the beginning of 2002. The commercials promoted the use of the automobile onboard guiding system OnStar. The commercials were successful, leading to a large increase in subscribers and a higher rate of subscriber renewals.

Xumo, LLC is an American internet television and consumer electronics company. It is a joint venture of Charter Communications and Comcast that operates the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) and advertising video on demand (AVOD) service Xumo Play, and distributes Xumo Stream Box digital media players and Xumo TV smart TVs. The Xumo Play platform's service operations are based in the Greater Los Angeles suburb of Irvine, California. As of October 2020, Xumo Play has 24 million monthly active users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qwest</span> Defunct American corporation

Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Clicker was an Internet video directory and search company based in Los Angeles, California. Their website aimed to be the TV Guide for all full episodes of programs available to watch on the Web. It is owned by CBS Interactive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adland</span> Advertising industry website

Adland is a website focusing on the advertising industry and an Internet archive of commercials. Adland incorporates advertising news, critical commentary on ads and the advertising industry, and archives of ads and ad campaigns, concentrating on television advertisements. In 2003, Variety described Adland as a "center for ad-related news and discussion." The website also hosts ads which have been banned or censored elsewhere. Adland is headquartered in Malta, though coverage is international. Adland also has a Twitter presence with nearly 150,000 followers. On September 19, 2019, the website completely moved out of web server host Vultr due to a copyright infringement situation regarding a Bridgestone commercial. Since January 2020, the website is currently active again with a completely different web server host.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comcast Business</span>

Comcast Business is a subsidiary of Comcast, which, through several iterations, has handled the sales, marketing, and delivery of internet, phone, and cable television to businesses. In 2012, Comcast Business grew by 34%, the fastest growth of any of Comcast's products in 2012, reaching $2.4 billion in revenue. In 2013, Comcast Business generated $3.2 billion in revenue, an increase of 26% over 2012 revenue.

In broadcast television, cord-cutting refers to the pattern of viewers, referred to as cord-cutters, cancelling their subscriptions to multichannel television services available over cable or satellite, dropping pay television channels or reducing the number of hours of subscription TV viewed in response to competition from rival media available over the Internet. This content is either free or significantly cheaper than the same content provided via cable.

Kidstime and Kidstime Express is a local children's television show broadcast by WTXX Channel 20 in Waterbury, Connecticut, in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was originally hosted by Mike Imfeld and his puppet companions with his cohost being T. X. Critter, operated by puppeteer Don Wunderlee. T. X. was the yellow precursor to ALF, created by the puppeteer Paul Fusco, a few years before the hit NBC TV show of the same name. At some point, Imfeld was replaced by Mike Mozart. Mozart was then later replaced by Lauren DeLisa, who remained the host until the show was canceled in 1993.

References

  1. Comcast Slowskys 2006 "Loading" Endtag , retrieved 2023-12-03, partially lost.
  2. "Comcast tortoises deal with sudden fame". Adfreak.com. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
  3. http://s3.amazonaws.com/effie_assets/2007/1897/2007_1897_pdf_1.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  4. Comcast Business Internet TV Commercial, Slowskys Diner iSpot tv appleuniversal , retrieved 2023-12-03
  5. Comcast Business Internet TV Spot, 'Slowskys' , retrieved 2023-12-03
  6. Shaw Communications Inc. - Snailskis: Say No To Slow with Shaw High-Speed Internet Archived 2007-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
  7. You Ditch YOUR Shells , retrieved 2023-12-03
  8. Post, Andy Vuong | The Denver (2011-04-01). "CenturyLink completes purchase of Qwest". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  9. "Comcast - Slowskys". Matt McFaden. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
  10. "Comic". PayLoad.
  11. "Comic 2".
  12. BE STILL WITH BILL! - YouTube
  13. The Slow Party – pop
  14. Slow Party Membership (PDF)
  15. "Post". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 2023-12-03.
  16. "Effie porfolio". Effie.