What happens when the SmartLess trio decides to launch a mobile phone service? Exactly what you think would happen — Jason Bateman deadpans, Will Arnett drops sarcasm like confetti, and Sean Hayes runs gleefully off-script.
In a new spoof campaign from Rethink New York, the SmartLess podcasters poke fun at corporate branding, marketing lingo, and, well, themselves — all while brainstorming a tagline for their new U.S. mobile service. The result? A pitch meeting that feels more like a lost Arrested Development episode… if Gob and Michael were trying to sell unlimited data.
“We reach millions of listeners on their phones every month,” said Bateman in a statement. “Expanding the SmartLess brand into mobile just made sense.” Though judging by the chaos in the campaign, “sense” may be a relative term.
The ads play like a love letter to creative flailing — all half-baked ideas and sideways glances, with the three stars hilariously riffing as if the meeting was held entirely for their own amusement (and let’s be honest, it probably was). Watch below:
For Rethink’s CCO Tara Lawall, the gig was a dream — and a nerve-wracking one. “I’m a huge fan of the podcast,” she said. “So being asked to pitch ideas to Jason, Will, and Sean was surreal. Then they casually mentioned Mitch Hurwitz would be joining us, too. I just about passed out.”
Lawall had to write lines in the trio’s voices — then read them aloud to their actual faces. “When Jason laughed at something I wrote, my soul left my body,” she admitted. “When he didn’t… I considered walking into the Hollywood Hills, never to return.”
SmartLess Mobile is real. The tagline? TBD. But one thing’s certain: no marketing meeting will ever be this funny again.
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