Whoa. Serena Williams is entering the Matrix in a new commercial for DirecTV Stream that will be making its debut this week.
Williams, the tennis star, was previously seen transformed into Wonder Woman in a spot introducing DirecTV Stream and how it combines the best of live TV and on demand entertainment. Those ads started running in August after WonderWoman ‘84 had joined the lineup for HBO Max, available via DirecTV Stream.
The new spot will be running across TV and digital media and comes about a month before HBO Max makes Matrix Resurrections available to its premium subscribers at the same time it appears in theaters.
In the spot, two viewers are watching DirecTV Stream, switching between Williams in a tennis match and scenes from The Matrix. Suddenly, Williams is transported into the Matrix, with its familiar green symbols in the background.
After the fans in the stand turn into sunglasses-wearing agents, Williams is offered a choice between taking a red ball or a blue ball. .When her opponent splits into a half dozen challengers, she beckons them to bring it on with the same hand gesture Keanu Reeves used in the original Matrix movie After a series of volleys that move in bullet-time, Serena wins the point with a shot that burns up the net.
“She is the one,” exclaims one of the DirecTV stream viewers.
Once upon a time, using The Matrix in a DirecTV commercial would have been a good example of corporate synergy. But earlier this year AT&T spun off DirecTV and the phone company is in the process of selling HBO parent WarnerMedia to Discovery.
The commercial was created by the ad agency TBWA/Chiat Day.■
