Nov 16, 2007

Toad's Pre-Thanksgiving Friday Fave



Props to Cathy Taylor at Adverganza for finding this gem of a spot for J.C. Penney via Saatchi/NY. Another entry in my ongoing Friday custom of spotlighting noteworthy TV commercials.

It runs a full two minutes, so I'm not sure where it actually runs, but that's besides the point. It's a wonderful little movie, perfectly cast with the sort of real looking children so rarely seen on television. Even the location, in an old-fashioned blue collar neighborhood with back alleys and Radio Flyer wagons is perfect: there's a timelessness to the setting that enables the fantasy.

There are lots of great little details (check out the signs on the fence) that it's worth watching twice, just to pick up the nuances.

I haven't been to a Penney's in a while, but if the in-store experience can match the magic of the commercial, they'll have a very merry Christmas indeed.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Toad - I loved it! My perceptions of Penney's is of a sort of 'it's your grandma's store.' This helps change my thoughts. Very cool that the talent was a little girl and the little boys were watching on the sidelines. Is that a politically incorrect statement? Speaks loudly to that girls can do anything.

Do you know who was behind the creative and if it is part of an extended campaign?

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Alan Wolk said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours too Toby.

The campaign is from Saatchi's New York office- not sure who the actual people responsible were.

It's part of a larger campaign that uses the "Every Day Matters" tag line but the executions are all different.

Definitely curious to see if the stores have been updated to match the advertising. That's why Target's been so successful- the in-store experience matches what's promised in the ads.

Anonymous said...

my goodness, this looks so texan to me: like Lyle Lovett:

Now each Christmas morning I sit in my chair
And I look up at the angels that float through the air
Some look down upon me, some come to my side
And they tell me that Jesus he said to say hi

Lyle Lovett

Aren't the headquarters in Plano. Mothership is in Woming

if nothing else, my sisters name is Janice. I guess this could be all about the days that any gal toiled in the JCPenney kids department while the cool chicks got to work upstairs in the women's fashion.

Lunar BBDO said...

Hi Toad. I hadn't noticed that you'd posted this (as I did today). It's great. The people involved just did everything right.

Anonymous said...

Not to get all Bill O'Reilly on everyone, but I'm amazed it says "Merry Christmas."

Pleased, but amazed.

Anonymous said...

Recommend to all of you folks that you go to Penney's and actually buy something there.