Every DirecTV commercial I have ever seen is ALWAYS directed at men, or, more specifically, a certain type of man. The commercials are clever in that they imply that getting DirecTV will enhance their masculinity, which it also infers is quite deficient without DirecTV.
Now, the commercials are either about putting a HOT quasi Hooci-girl prostitute like female (very crass in appearance and not a women any of the men would marry, but certainly in their fantasies) on the screen to play upon the most basic of male desires or the commercials are where the male who has the DirecTV subscription or NFLST is large and tall and even super-human in stature and DOMINATES the guy without the subscription who is shorter, less muscular, kind of a small dude and the message is the wimps, submissives, or "bottoms" of the male species don't have DirecTV or NFLST. Even the Cord family campaign to promote the wireless Genie client (that family who had strings attached to them, except for the man) was about the Husband/Father being the alpha male who is just a bit of a jerk, but always dominate in a somewhat male chauvinistic way, who was the only real person large and in charge while his string son is a victim, his wife foolish to laugh at, and his father in-law an OLD (something DirecTV seems to be saying is bad and NOT DTV subscribers) man who is no longer physically threatening to our Alpha male DirecTV subscriber. It is IDENTITY and leverages any insecure feelings a male may have about their masculinity where women have unprecedented say so and human rights in a marriage (Prohibition was the result astronomical numbers of drunken men beating their wives almost every day and no one doing anything to curb it; we have come some way since then). Very effective while also being very cynical, but that is the dark side of advertising.
