The 1985 Bears will always have the “Super Bowl Shuffle.” Will the ascendant 2025 Cubs hang their caps on a faux bald Dansby Swanson crooning to a takeoff of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game?”
DirecTV certainly hopes so.
The pay-TV provider plucked the Cubs shortstop, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dustin May to star in its latest commercial as a bald boy band to promote its satellite-free streaming platform.
The ongoing “Nothing On Your Roof” digital campaign features the hirsute ballplayers chatting in barber chairs about DirecTV’s streaming packages offering the most MLB games — without the need for satellite dishes
The spot, which launches Tuesday, morphs into a surreal music video where the ballplayers don bald caps and break into “Take Me Out to the Bald Game,” set to the tune of the iconic baseball classic. Filmed last month at the Giants spring training ballpark in Scottsdale, Arizona, the trio were on familiar turf, but venturing into a whole new field.
“I got a real taste of what the movie stars do when they get all dressed up in their makeup and having the bald caps on,” said Swanson. “You would never fathom how long it takes and the effort that goes into it. I think they made me look like a pretty decent bald guy.”
Swanson, 31, an All-Star shortstop who won a World Series ring with the Atlanta Braves, joined the Cubs in 2023, bringing with him Gold Glove skills, senior leadership and a thick head of hair and beard that have inspired a surprising amount of online discussion.
His new look is likely to generate even more social media buzz.
Symbolizing that rooftop satellite dishes are no longer necessary for the streaming version of DirecTV, the ballplayers go bald on top as they participate in a dreamlike night game. Their hair remains long on the sides, playing out like a cross between Larry Fine of the Three Stooges and watermelon-smashing comedian Gallagher — no relation to the park next to Wrigley Field.
Extras beef up the choreography and backing vocals, deftly hitting the high notes on par with a Backstreet Boys or NSYNC pop video.
“If you were to hear me sing, you would definitely know that they brought in some backups for me,” Swanson said. “My voice, I wouldn’t say, is meant for making people’s ears smile.”
The spot is the latest from DirecTV, which has been transforming itself from a satellite pay-TV provider into a streaming platform. A previous digital campaign featured Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson, who once famously obliterated a bird with a fastball, turning satellite dishes into mini-ballparks where his feathered friends could roam freely.
Last fall, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, who also possesses flowing locks, donned a bald cap to promote DirecTV’s “Nothing On Your Roof” ad campaign.
“In years past, satellite was the leader in quality,” said Kelly Jo Sands, DirecTV’s senior vice president of marketing. “But people want streaming, and so we’re really trying to get that word out there in every new and unique way that we can.”
While the new commercial will seek a national digital audience, having a Chicago player in a starring role may help drive home DirecTV’s message about sports programming sans satellite dish to an important TV market in flux.
Many Chicago sports fans have been left in the dark by a protracted carriage impasse between Comcast and the Chicago Sports Network, the new TV home of the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox.
The nascent regional sports network has been blacked out to nearly one million Chicago-area Comcast subscribers since its launch in October. DirecTV, meanwhile, carries both CHSN and Marquee, the pay-TV home of the Cubs since 2020.
Behind the fun of the new commercial is some serious business for DirecTV, which has been heavily promoting its streaming service as its legacy satellite pay-TV platform continues to shed subscribers in the age of cord-cutting.
In the fourth quarter alone, DirecTV lost 296,000 satellite subscribers, while its streaming service added 25,000 subscribers, according to a report from industry analyst MoffettNathanson.
Traditional pay-TV platforms, including cable and satellite, lost 6.5 million subscribers last year, a 12.2% annual decline, according to MoffettNathanson. While virtual providers such as YouTube TV, Hulu, FuboTV and DirecTV’s streaming service added nearly 1.4 million subscribers, it was not enough to offset broader pay-TV industry erosion.
Last year, there were 47 million traditional and 21 million virtual subscribers, reaching a combined 51% of U.S. households — the lowest pay-TV penetration since 1988, according to MoffettNathanson. By 2028, cable and satellite providers are projected to lose another 20 million subscribers, roughly splitting the smaller pay-TV pie with virtual platforms.
Among the shrinking cable giants, Charter Communications reported 12.7 million video customers in the first quarter, enough to top rival Comcast’s 12.1 million subscribers as the largest pay-TV provider in the U.S. But Charter lost 181,000 video customers while 427,000 pulled the plug at Comcast during the quarter, according to their earnings reports.
DirecTV and YouTube TV are essentially tied for third with about 9.3 million subscribers each, according to MoffettNathanson. YouTube TV’s virtual streaming platform is projected to surpass all other pay-TV providers by next year.
Streaming may be crucial to the future of DirecTV, whose effort to merge with rival satellite pay-TV provider Dish fell through in November. DirecTV had about 6.4 million satellite and 2.1 million streaming subscribers at the end of last year, according to MoffettNathanson. U-verse, a remnant of its merger with AT&T, has dwindled to 849,000 subscribers.
AT&T acquired DirecTV for $49 billion in 2015, which combined with its own U-verse video services made it the largest pay-TV provider in the country with 26 million subscribers. It has since lost nearly two-thirds of its video customers.
In 2021, AT&T spun off DirecTV and U-verse into a standalone company, selling a 30% stake to TPG Capital, a Texas-based private equity firm, for $1.8 billion. In November, TPG agreed to buy the remaining 70% for about $7.6 billion.
The new owners may have a lot riding on the new ad campaign, as DirecTV looks to sports and streaming to recover market share.
Beyond Swanson’s star turn, the musical theme of the commercial should resonate in Chicago, playing off “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” the century-old classic which announcer Harry Caray turned into an enduring seventh-inning stretch singalong.
Launched on the South Side in 1976 by Caray, then the White Sox announcer, the song moved to Wrigley Field in 1982 when he took the mic as the Cubs play-by-play man. Caray died in 1998, but the tradition has continued with an array of celebrity guests belting it out from a TV booth adorned with the colorful broadcaster’s caricature.
Now Cubs fans will have to reconcile a memory mashup of Caray with current shortstop Swanson in a bald cap singing a slightly different tune.
Swanson said the one-day spring training shoot was a fun experience, but the easily embarrassed ballplayer initially struggled to unleash his inner Justin Timberlake. He eventually did a “pretty darn good job” making what he hopes will be a well-received commercial.
“They did a great job, and the behind-the-scenes footage is even funnier, because you can really see their personalities come out,” Sands said.
While his signature full head of hair sprung back to life after several washings, Swanson expects some residual good-natured ribbing from his Cubs teammates, as the first-place club looks to turn 2025 into its own potentially memorable winning campaign.
As for Swanson’s prematurely bald look, the follicularly endowed shortstop is hopeful the commercial isn’t a glimpse into his own future.
“I think my family holds its hair pretty good,” Swanson said. “My mom’s got good hair, Dad’s got good hair. So hopefully I can keep it going. But at least I do know what I can look like without it. And you know, it’s not the worst look in the world.”
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
