I enjoyed the Ad. I sent the link to some of my mates who are footy fans and have no real interest in RL. They thought it was funny, and they didn't say "typical northern RL fan". Myself i would've liked to have seen a John Inverdale manakin, with JV stabbing him with a pencil saying "i f***ing hate you". People from all walks of life and classes would enjoy that.

The only thing better than that would be if it was the real Inverdale.

Nice one Mr Cat !

Yours.

Not_Quite_Fat_But_Tubby_&_Working_On_It

PS. (For All)

Darts is a past time for fat alcoholics & is marketed at fat alcoholics by Breweries
& the Past Time Governing Body.

It is no more than a limp C0CK waving contest for P!$$H€AD$.

i think its funny... an irreverent poke at ourselves. or perhaps we don't like it when we have the mirror held up so we can see ourselves in it!

the nice thing is that the short appearances by the players make them look big... mean and athletic... nor do i mind the gentle poking of fun at other sports foibles... because its happening in a medium that we are doing that also to ourselves.

ditch the chip! and lets start to enjoy ourselves and our sport again!

As much as I hate 'settling' so to speak. A lot of RL fans need to realise that although we think this is the best game in the world, the vast majority in this country don't. We have to accept and deal with the fact that we are miles behind football, rugby union and possibly cricket/darts in terms of popularity. We aren't going to get past them anytime soon. What we need to strive for is a slow increase in coverage. Done well in that respect that BBC are live streaming amatuer RL in the Challenge Cup.

In terms of the advert, it's funny, entertaining. Has a pot shot at other sports (which all RL fans do anyway) he syas what we all think and feel. Accurately represents the emotions of a typical RL match. As someone said before yes, Johnny Vegas is an RL lover and maybe in an ideal world we wouldn't have him promoting the game. Yet we've had Russell Crowe (a Hollywood superstar) try promote the game on Sky Sports to no avail.

The only negatives I have with the advert is possibly some of the terminology used. And the lack of actual footage of the sport. For me it should be highlights of one or two classy tries, some monster hits in defence, then a clip of the Mic'd Up section, with maybe the monologue from Vegas over the top of most of it.

Unfortunately with the clowns in charge of the game at the moment. RL will continue to be 'sub-standard' and look amatuerish in terms of marketing the game. Get someone in charge with some brains. I mean Toronto do their own marketing etc and are miles ahead of anything the RFL have come up with.

I'm not a big Johnny Vegas fan so I can't say I find it brilliant but on the other hand its nowhere near as bad as some as the moaners on here are going on about. Anyway if you want a turd, passionless advert (which TBF advertises a turd, passionless competition) check out the 6 nations guff the BBC is putting out at the moment.

This one.

Good for you, unfortunately not everyone who watches RL is a fat, dumb, loudmouth Northerner.

seen it for the first time today

not a fan

Let's face it, whoever we (Sky) get to front up an advert is unlikely to be everyones cup of tea, Vegas certainly isnt.
But, there is no denying that he is a real fan and follows St Helens and a lot of what he says in the advert is what draws the current supporters in and keeps them coming back and many RL fans dont enjoy football (although plenty do), they dont watch a lot of Union (again some do).
It's only supposed to give a "heads up" that the new season is almost upon us and it certainly does that.

None of the critics have said who/what they would want to see instead ??

Treatment like a real, legitimate sport and not some type of regional backwoods aberration.

I think what you've ultimately got with this ad is something that is believable - and that's something good ads have to have. Jonny Vegas may be many things, but there's no question that he's a fan of the sport.

OK, he may play to a certain stereotype but as he says in the ad, "it's who we are" (whether you like it or not). You could give that script to Benedict Cumberbatch and whilst I'm sure it will look a lot more sophisticated than Jonny Vegas, it certainly wouldn't be believable.

If you want to start arguing that the sport needs content that appeals to a more sophisticated audience (and that's certainly something I've said the sport should be doing) then go ahead, but that isn't a task that starts and ends with a Sky TV ad. Sky TV isn't the RFLs or the 12 SL clubs' PR agency.