LOS ANGELES — William Shatner’s Priceline Negotiator isn’t a goner after all. He just went surfing. Seven months after a commercial showed the Negotiator plunging off a cliff and into apparent oblivion, the company is resurrecting him in a new 30-second TV and online spot that debuts Thursday.
A clever parody of a world-weary spy who vanishes to start a new life, the commercial opens with Shatner’s Negotiator standing on a beach, gazing somberly at the ocean. A company man (played by actor Allan Louis) approaches him.
“You’ve been busy for a dead man,” he tells the Negotiator. “After you jumped ship in Bangkok, I thought I’d lost you.”
“Surfing is my life now,” replies the Negotiator, who is dressed in a business suit, shirt and tie. But his pants legs are rolled up, and he has a surfboard tucked under his arm.
The Negotiator, ignoring entreaties to resume work, neatly manages a Priceline plug (“even faster, easier ways to save money” on travel) before dashing toward the Malibu waves.
Turns out Priceline just couldn’t do without him.
“We had such a positive response to the ad where we appeared to throw him over a cliff that we wanted to find a creative way to bring him back,” said Brett Keller, chief marketing officer for .
When last seen, the Negotiator was rescuing vacationers from a bus teetering on a bridge’s railing. “Save yourselves — some money,” he said, handing off his cellphone as he and the bus tumble into a dry creek bed. A violent explosion followed.
