What it had to solve
Launch T-Mobile ONE, the unlimited-everything plan, to Americans still worrying about limited data buckets and overages every month.
How it works
The spot debuted during premieres of Supergirl (CW) and Timeless (NBC) in October 2016 as part of the T-Mobile ONE campaign, with the message backed by the fastest LTE network reaching nearly 311 million Americans.
What it did
No results reported. The spot literalised data anxiety: having to choose between entertainment and getting home.
Background
In October 2016, T-Mobile debuted a new T-Mobile ONE spot starring Ariana Grande, created by Publicis Seattle, airing during the premieres of Supergirl on The CW and Timeless on NBC.
The comical premise: millions of Americans on limited data bucket plans make painful trade-offs every month, and in the spot that trade-off ends with Ariana Grande left standing on the side of a road after the driver she is riding with has to spend their last bit of data on navigation rather than streaming her music.
The campaign launched the unlimited-everything T-Mobile ONE plan, introduced that August after T-Mobile did away with overages, and leaned on the carrier's fastest LTE network reaching nearly 311 million Americans — about 99% of those covered by Verizon.
Why it lands
The gag only works if the audience shares the pain: choosing maps over music is a real limited-data decision.
Casting one of the biggest pop stars as the one sacrificed raises the joke's stakes to absurdity.
It attacks rivals' bucket plans without naming a single competitor.
What you can take
Compress a tariff benefit into one absurd sacrifice — the joke explains unlimited better than the word does.
Since then
The spot premiered on 10 October 2016 as part of the broader T-Mobile ONE campaign. No performance figures were reported.
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