Pluto TV's Couch Potato Ad Is One Of Super Bowl 2024's Funniest Commercials
Pluto TV, the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service, earned itself a brief spot in front of millions of Super Bowl viewers, and it didn't waste the opportunity. In what turned out to be one of the funniest commercials of Super Bowl 58, the streaming company went with a theme few would have expected: farm country. Specifically, couch potato farming, which is exactly what it sounds like. Dozens of people, as well as at least one cat, were featured in full potato form, their eyes all locked on TVs jutting from the soil.
"This here? This is Pluto TV country," the video's narrator says with a southern twang. "Here on this farm, we grow couch potatoes." How do these couch potatoes get so "big and strong," you may wonder? They're fed with "the finest content from Pluto TV." The company doesn't waste the opportunity to highlight its key points, namely that it has a bunch of shows and movies available and that they're all free to access. That lack of a price tag does come with a cost, of course, which is that you have to watch commercials ... but hey, that's why you're watching the Super Bowl, right?
Pluto TV isn't the only free streaming service
As you'd expect, Pluto TV is only one of many services that fall within the FAST category — it is joined by similar offerings like Amazon's Freevee, Roku's "The Roku Channel," Sling TV's free variant called Freestream, and similar. FAST services are distinct from options like on-demand Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video due to the way they're made financially viable: they typically offer content sorted into "channels" that each have their own themes, such as comedy or drama. Users get an experience similar to watching live TV, and that includes regular ad breaks that can't be skipped.
That's similar to paid live streaming services like YouTube TV and Hulu Live TV, which fall under the over-the-top (OTT) category. The big difference there is that OTT services offer access to the latest episodes and shows, whereas FAST services like Pluto TV often feature episodes from older seasons, classic shows, and aging movies.