jtherkal: Is it just me, or does this look like a banner ad for a man-on-man interaction site? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Somewhere the strategy of “use Mike and Mike to promote Valentine’s Day” doesn’t quite work the way I bet someone thought it would. I’m not really putting this up here to rate. But C+.
sjbooher: I believe the term is “man-on-man interceptions”.
This campaign for JCPenny’s new brand, American Living, launched during the Oscars. There was a little bit of hype for it in the ad world, though I’m not sure why. I did watch some of the Oscars, and I did see a few of these commercials. They had such an impact that I didn’t think of them again until about ten minutes ago.
jtherkal: Hey, look America, it’s you! Look at how well we know who you are. Doesn’t that look like your little daughter stepping in cake? Now that we’ve established this bond, perhaps you’d like to buy some of our things that we designed for you.
jtherkal: America, it’s me again. And I think I’ve really captured the essence of your living. It’s children playing in the woods. Then it’s children sitting on a bed in the woods. Buy some stuff. A polo shirt maybe, one with stripes.
jtherkal: Come on, America, you didn’t think I would forget about your crazy marching band thing with people on skateboards and stuff, did you? I even changed my song. Now will you buy my clothes? How about some sheets?
I think you get the idea. I don’t know if I love it or hate it. After watching these a bunch of times, I definitely start to associate a certain warm feeling with the American Living brand–which is perhaps all this launch campaign needed to accomplish. No matter what, I’m always going to think of JCPenney as a shitty department store in the mall. I like it, I hate it, I can’t decide. C+.
sjbooher: I’ll be blunt. This is a bunch of b.s. NO ONE featured in these commercials shops at JCPenney — they are all wearing Polo and Nautica. As my associate so very aptly stated, Penney’s is a shitty department store in the mall that attracts working class folk. Does anyone really WANT to shop there? Probably night. On a related noted, as a kid, I always wanted the clothes JCPenney sold that you matched based on the animal tags. So there’d be a shirt and a pair of pants, both with a rhino tag. Awesome.
Also, are these ads for a train company? Were they designed by the Mad Men for a 50s demographic? Are these to be used as a form of sleep therapy? F.