Sprint takes a cue from popular Japanese ad campaign in bizarre “Framily” commercial

Sprint’s new commercial featuring a “framily” that includes a father who is a talking hamster and daughter who only speaks French is definitely weird. If you live in the US, you may have caught the 30 second clip during prime time Monday evening and were left with an upturned eyebrow and slight frown. But this strange commercial isn’t quite an original creation. The Sprint framily was actually inspired by a long-running marketing campaign over in, you guessed it, Japan.

After purchasing Sprint last year, it seems Japanese mobile service provider, SoftBank, has finally brought over an American version of the Shirato family commercials with its mishmash of members including a talking dog and African-American Dante Carver. The quirky commercials have been met with great success in Japan and have even featured celebrities Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones.

This new family, dubbed the Frobinsons, seems to be playing off of the Shirato family dynamic, with a cohesive yet contrasting cast of characters. However, Sprint seems to have injected an extra dose of weird to their new campaign. Take a look for your self:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nF37tnDdu4

You may have recognized the voice of actor Andrew Dice Clay coming out of the plastic ball-encased hamster father. We can’t even begin to explain why the daughter is constantly surrounded by blue birds or where the young son with a southern accent is from. We can, however, tell you that Sprint has already promised to bring in famous celebrities and athletes in future commercials that will undoubtedly be just as bizarre.

Although similar, we’re not quite convinced that the Frobinsons will be just as popular as the Shiratos of Japan. However, they have already been getting plenty of attention for their new brand of weird.

Source: Mashable