After fourteen years at the spokesman for Priceline, William Shatner’s tenure is coming to an end.
According to the Associated Press, an ad for the on-line travel reservation company will run this evening, showing Shatner meeting his demise as the spokesperson.
The end to Shatner’s role as the Priceline Negotiator will air Monday, in an ad that shows the actor rescuing vacationers on a teetering bus. “Save yourselves — some money,” he says, giving his mobile phone to a passenger as he and the bus fall off a bridge. An explosion follows, the story notes.
“I’m in grief mode,” Shatner said in a phone interview, according to the piece. “It’s not the first time I’ve had an iconic character die off.” He called the gig “a great run” and added, “If the management says this is the end, this is the end.”
The demise of Shatner’s Priceline character is part of a strategic shift by the company. Priceline.com is moving away from the negotiation model for setting prices to a fixed-price model, the story reports.
Priceline.com CEO Christopher Soder said of Shatner’s explosive sendoff: “The challenge is harder to get people’s attention than it used to be. … So we decided to do something really over the top to get the message across.”
Soder hinted that the new spot will be part of the Super Bowl ad lineup, the story notes.
This has actually been on line for a few days. Here is a YouTube link: http://youtu.be/O92ZbSAftuI
So, do we move on to more of Nimoy? Chris Pine? Scott Bakula? Avery Brooks?
Perhaps Judith and Garfield will help him write a series of sequel novels in which the Negotiator didn’t really die, but was rebuilt by the Borg.
Well he milked that cash cow long enough. Time to move on.
He was funny in the commercials. Pricewhat?