"X" Marks a Brand New Spot?

I spent quite a few years working on the production of national television commercials, and I know a classic rebranding campaign when I see one.

So, it's no surprise watching the rapid morphing of Comcast cable into Xfinity, and this current campaign follows to a “C” the classic rebranding structure:

1. Announce new name, but assure "we're still Comcast"

2. Use existing name, but share screen with new brand logo

3. Use new name, but share screen with old brand logo

4. Use new name exclusively, drop all reference to old identity

Current crop of ads place Comcast half-way between three and four. So far a very predictable metamorphosis, and one so textbook it breaks absolutely no new ground whatsoever. I can only hope that Comcast did not spend millions and millions on consultants or creative fees for this unimaginative corporate retread. 

  Of course, I would be wrong.

The current high-end national TV spots even go so far as hiring actor Jon Hamm for his come-hither voiceover, intoning as though he were the voice of computer HAL in Kubrick's space odyssey looking to hookup at a singles bar:

Actually, Hamm sounds here for all the world like his character ad exec Don Draper, in AMC's Mad Men, soullessly pitching new creative to a hapless client.

The bigger question in all this is "why"? Theories abound:

• Having totally trashed their image for customer service and support, Comcast wants to walk away from all their negative image issues and start over.

• Having max'd out their rate structure and facing mass customer defections to more cost-effective platforms, Comcast is simply repackaging their s.o.s. (same old service) in a fancy, shiny, glitzy wrapper in hope of dangling some suggestion of improvements. Well, my Comcast bill arrived last week, the same identical bundle at the identical price but with a big "welcome to Xfinity" sprawled across the invoice.

• Finally, in light of the current hearings in Washington debating Comcast's purchase of NBC-Universal, the Comcast execs decided divorcing their cable distribution from all soon-to-be acquired broadcast and motion picture content providers might be a wise move.

Overall, this last grand master plan is probably closest to the truth, but the laughable selection of the "Xfinity" monicker not only sounds like something out of the early 1980's, but also smacks of "X-rated" and "porn" which isn't surprising considering “adult content” makes up the largest portion of all cable's programming profits.

Or as one customer of a competing cable company so aptly put it, in a recent blog posting:

" … just so long as Cox cable doesn't try a similar name change."

Jim Furrer

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