Even the Grim Reaper gets annoyed when his television cuts out in the rain.

“You know what never stops working in the rain? This guy. I’m out there, rain or shine, harvesting souls,” says Death himself in a fun spot featuring monsters and villains expressing their frustration over the evils of satellite TV.

The new campaign by creative agency Something Different includes four sports for Charter Communications’ Spectrum cable brand. All are directed by David Shane of O Positive and will roll out over the next month.

The first one, “Train,” features an evil professor, a mummy, a werewolf and the Grim Reaper chatting about their weekend on a commuter train. They’re up to nothing special: Working on that death ray, spending some “me time” howling, summoning the apocalypse and bringing the orange slices to the twins’ soccer practice. But Death, who’s on his phone texting, is a bit distracted by his kids “going bananas” at home due to TV service disruptions.

Upcoming ads will focus on other customer complaints like deceptive pricing and a lack of channels and features.

“We all just laughed at the idea of these evil people thinking someone else was horrible,” Tommy Henvey, chief creative at Something Different, told Adweek.

Shane, who was also behind HBO’s “Awkward Family Viewing” ads, agreed it was fun to take classic monster cliches and dimensionalize them for the modern world.

“We gave them everyday problems and below-the-surface emotions to create a sense of long-standing relationships between old friends, co-workers, wives and husbands.”

CREDITS

Client: Charter Communications

Brand: Spectrum

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Creative Strategy: Joe Leonard

Vice President, Marketing and Creative Strategy: Jim Obermeyer

Senior Director, Marketing and Creative Strategy: Amy Kantrowitz

Senior Manager, Marketing and Creative Strategy: Lindsay Hittner

Agency: Something Different

Chief Creative: Tommy Henvey

Managing Partner, Executive Producer: Patti McConnell

Group Creative Director: Richard Ryan

Senior Producer: Garrett Crabb

Marketing Director: Christine Dodd

Production Coordinator: Jamie Eisman

Production: O Positive

Director: David Shane

Executive Producers: Ralph Laucella and Marc Grill

Producer: Ken Licata

Director of Photography: Marc Laliberte-Else

Production Designer: Dan Ouellete

Editing: Crew Cuts

Partner, Editor: Jake Jacobsen

Assistant Editor: Jake Trill

Producer: Sara Arnold

Post Effects Producer: Stephanie Norris

Music: JSM Music

Chief Creative Officer: Joel Simon

Executive Producer: Jeff Fiorello

Composers: Joel Simon and Seamus Kilmartin

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