Is telecom the new tequila? Why the ‘SmartLess’ podcast is launching its own wireless brand
Last year, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes signed a three-year deal, reportedly worth $100 million, to take their hit podcast SmartLess to SiriusXM. Now the trio are doing the next obvious thing . . . launching their own discount wireless network brand. SmartLess Mobile is not a two-months-late April Fool’s joke, but a real, honest-to-pod, low-cost, direct-to-consumer wireless brand. According to a press release, the logic is that since nearly 90% of our phone’s data is over Wi-Fi, consumers are paying for unlimited data they don’t use. The new brand’s tagline is: “Don’t get OutSmarted. Get SmartLess.” In a series of spots for the launch campaign, created by the ad agency Rethink, Arnett, Bateman, and Hayes are shot in black and white, riffing on what the new brand’s catchphrase should be. Shot by director Sam Jones, each has a striking resemblance to the podcast’s six-part 2023 docuseries SmartLess: On the Road, also shot by Jones. Ryan Reynolds Redux The vibe of the SmartLess campaign is a self-awareness about pitching itself as a new brand and the eye rolls that may induce. It’s also straight out of the Ryan Reynolds Advertising Playbook of satirizing the very thing you’re doing to sell your product. Just as Reynolds was upfront about his ad gimmicks, so too are Arnett, Bateman, and Hayes in their own way as they lounge around and try to think up brand catchphrases. The other two spots, “Corporate Brainstorm” and “America, We Have an Announcement,” are so random that they almost feel like outtakes. The other similarity to Reynolds is how SmartLess Mobile is bringing celebrity brand ownership to the wireless category. Back in 2019, Reynolds bought a 25% stake in Mint Mobile and began pitching the brand to consumers. By 2023, T-Mobile announced it was acquiring the brand for more than $1 billion. Perhaps Reynolds was merely the tip of the spear, driving celebrity brand ownership beyond the low-hanging fruit of booze and beauty and into the realm of less sexy, but no less popular, brand categories. “The wireless industry has normalized complexity and confusion, but SmartLess Mobile disrupts that with radical transparency,” said SmartLess mobile chief brand officer Jeni McAleese, in a statement. “When you can make people laugh about a real problem while genuinely solving it, you’re not just marketing—you’re providing a public service.” Just like Mint Mobile, SmartLess Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), meaning it’s a communications services company that doesn’t own the telecom network infrastructure. SmartLess Mobile CEO Paul McAleese is a seasoned wireless exec who co-founded i-wireless, another MVNO that operated on Sprint’s network. According to the company, all three podcast hosts are equity investors in SmartLess Mobile, and the lead investor is Thomvest Asset Management, a fund manager owned by Toronto-based billionaire Peter Thomson. Who knew the celebrity brand timeline could go from tequila to telecom so quickly? The explosion of celebrity-backed brands caused consumer fatigue in some categories (like beauty) as far back as 2021. In that context, this is a shrewd move by the SmartLess crew, bringing celebrity to a virtually wide open and unexpected product category. Boring is the new cool. Today, it’s a wireless network. Tomorrow, you might be signing up for Armchair Expert Home Insurance.
Last year, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes signed a three-year deal, reportedly worth $100 million, to take their hit podcast SmartLess to SiriusXM. Now the trio are doing the next obvious thing . . . launching their own discount wireless network brand.
SmartLess Mobile is not a two-months-late April Fool’s joke, but a real, honest-to-pod, low-cost, direct-to-consumer wireless brand. According to a press release, the logic is that since nearly 90% of our phone’s data is over Wi-Fi, consumers are paying for unlimited data they don’t use. The new brand’s tagline is: “Don’t get OutSmarted. Get SmartLess.”
In a series of spots for the launch campaign, created by the ad agency Rethink, Arnett, Bateman, and Hayes are shot in black and white, riffing on what the new brand’s catchphrase should be. Shot by director Sam Jones, each has a striking resemblance to the podcast’s six-part 2023 docuseries SmartLess: On the Road, also shot by Jones.
Ryan Reynolds Redux
The vibe of the SmartLess campaign is a self-awareness about pitching itself as a new brand and the eye rolls that may induce. It’s also straight out of the Ryan Reynolds Advertising Playbook of satirizing the very thing you’re doing to sell your product. Just as Reynolds was upfront about his ad gimmicks, so too are Arnett, Bateman, and Hayes in their own way as they lounge around and try to think up brand catchphrases. The other two spots, “Corporate Brainstorm” and “America, We Have an Announcement,” are so random that they almost feel like outtakes.
The other similarity to Reynolds is how SmartLess Mobile is bringing celebrity brand ownership to the wireless category. Back in 2019, Reynolds bought a 25% stake in Mint Mobile and began pitching the brand to consumers. By 2023, T-Mobile announced it was acquiring the brand for more than $1 billion.
Perhaps Reynolds was merely the tip of the spear, driving celebrity brand ownership beyond the low-hanging fruit of booze and beauty and into the realm of less sexy, but no less popular, brand categories.
“The wireless industry has normalized complexity and confusion, but SmartLess Mobile disrupts that with radical transparency,” said SmartLess mobile chief brand officer Jeni McAleese, in a statement. “When you can make people laugh about a real problem while genuinely solving it, you’re not just marketing—you’re providing a public service.”
Just like Mint Mobile, SmartLess Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), meaning it’s a communications services company that doesn’t own the telecom network infrastructure. SmartLess Mobile CEO Paul McAleese is a seasoned wireless exec who co-founded i-wireless, another MVNO that operated on Sprint’s network.
According to the company, all three podcast hosts are equity investors in SmartLess Mobile, and the lead investor is Thomvest Asset Management, a fund manager owned by Toronto-based billionaire Peter Thomson.
Who knew the celebrity brand timeline could go from tequila to telecom so quickly? The explosion of celebrity-backed brands caused consumer fatigue in some categories (like beauty) as far back as 2021. In that context, this is a shrewd move by the SmartLess crew, bringing celebrity to a virtually wide open and unexpected product category.
Boring is the new cool. Today, it’s a wireless network. Tomorrow, you might be signing up for Armchair Expert Home Insurance.
