The commercials are a fly-on-the-wall view of an everyday person suffering the miseries that come with old, broken down household appliances, electronics or furniture items.

Update 2-28-07: Citing union talent contractual concerns, RAZOR, Rent A Center's Ad agency, contacted RTO Online requesting the TV ads be removed. Although we placed the ads here as part of a news story, RTO Online has temporarily removed the 5 RAC TV spots while we investigate alternatives. The spots were originally supplied to RTO Online by Vollmer Public Relations, Razor's public relations firm. We apologize to our visitors for any inconvenience.

Update: Based on the interest in Rent-A-Center's new Spanish language spot. We've added all 5 spots from the new campaign launching later this month.

On the heels of last year's highly successful "Never Settle" campaign, which humorously reminded consumers living with old or broken down home merchandise that they didn't have to settle for second best, Rent-A-Center does a follow-up act with 2007 advertising campaign "Frustration Fantasies," scheduled to break in late January. Included in the effort are TV and radio for the general market, as well as spots uniquely created for their Spanish-speaking audience.

The commercials are a fly-on-the-wall view of an everyday person suffering the miseries that come with old, broken down household appliances, electronics or furniture items. In each case, the person – now at his or her breaking point – drifts into a fantasy that stars them taking sweet revenge on these inanimate objects. In "Electronics Breakdown," a male sports fan is tormented by an ancient TV on the fritz - the picture fizzling before every big play. The scene shifts to the sports fan's fantasy – in this case, hoisting the offending TV up on a rope in his front yard, and beating it with a baseball bat like a piñata as neighbors cheer him on. The spot resolves with Rent-A-Center delivering a brand new, picture-perfect flat screen TV, carrying the tagline, which debuted last year, "We Make It Easy To Make It Your Own." Other spots include a frozen-over freezer and a sofa that's lost the spring in its springs.

A pair of dedicated Spanish language-only spots depicts the foibles many new people encounter when acquiring their first household goods. "Empty Spaces" and "Furniture Frustration" take a whimsical view of the often-dicey garage sale purchase, and the challenges of creating a complete home on a budget.

"Our message of new, name brand merchandise paired with easy payment options and no high interest credit card fees strongly resonates with our consumers," said Ann Davids, Chief Marketing Officer for the Fortune 500 Company. "People are tired of racking up credit card debt, often making minimum payments on merchandise sometimes years after its usefulness."

Ann Davids, Rent-A-Center's VP Marketing and Advertising, was featured in the September, 2005 issue of RTO Magazine (subscribe, read online). Davids, a 17 year veteran of the RTO industry, was the the first VP ever hired from outside the company, and the first ever female VP.

The integrated ad campaign, created by RAC Marketing Alliance partners Launch Agency, RAZOR, and Hispanic specialist Company Jones includes radio, print, Web and in-store marketing. Carat USA plans and places the broadcast media.