JC Penney horrified/thrilled over fake spot
Surprising almost no one, the JC Penney spot with the two horny teens practicing speed-dressing in preparation for interrupted make-out sessions, which won a bronze Lion at Cannes last week, isn’t really from JC Penney. The chain’s CMO tells The Wall Street Journal: “We’re very disappointed that our logo and brand position were used in that way.” Sure you are. All the extra ink is just killing you. Penney blames Saatchi & Saatchi, which blames the spot’s Cannes entrant, Epoch Films. Saatchi should hire whomever did create the spot, because it’s more compelling than anything the agency’s done lately. This comment on Gawker sums it up best: “JC Penney ought to be thanking their lucky stars they got a tiny dollop of relevancy.” I also suspect that the naked Crisco wrestling ad from Crisco is a fake. The Hitler look-alike and speed metal on the soundtrack are dead giveaways. As for Cannes, once again, I didn’t get to go. And I never had sex in a basement as a teen, slathered in Crisco or otherwise. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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June 24, 2008 in Gianatasio, JC Penney | Permalink |
Comments
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This happens all the time. A hell of a lot of the work in the shows is scam and everyone knows it. Yet the scam gets PR and publications like Adweek never mention it unless something like this happens. Still, it is only on the blog.
Great idea or not, scam is cheating.
Posted by: Mike | Jun 24, 2008 10:46:22 AM
The following statement is being issued on behalf of Saatchi & Saatchi.
“Saatchi & Saatchi has a long history of producing principled and respectful advertising for JCPenney and its entire client roster. The Speed Dressing TV commercial, which was submitted to the 2008 International Advertising Festival at Cannes, was created by a third party vendor without JCPenney's knowledge or consent. It was produced and released to the public without any knowledge or prior approval from JCPenney. Saatchi & Saatchi did not enter the spot and deeply regrets the message this ad presents. Saatchi & Saatchi apologizes to JCPenney, its associates and its customers. The commercial is being removed from public circulation.”
Posted by: DiGennaro Communications | Jun 24, 2008 11:37:47 AM
I am shocked, shocked to find that an ad at Cannes never actually ran!
Cannes has a long history of looking the other way when it comes to scam ads. Everyone knows it. Entire careers have been built on Cannes award winning ads that never ran.
Posted by: GRB | Jun 24, 2008 3:36:07 PM
It's a good spot. They should have sold it to some obscure clothing boutique in manhattan, then everyone'd be happy.
Posted by: | Jun 24, 2008 4:06:49 PM
Advertising awards are a joke. Yet, it's refreshing to see ads that didn't go through layers of morons turning it into crap.
Posted by: Somebody | Jun 24, 2008 5:41:58 PM
Scam is cheating. Cheating is fraud. Adweek should have had this on their front page.
Posted by: Danny | Jun 25, 2008 9:49:07 AM
sounds like chaos reigns. who's minding the store?
Posted by: willem | Jun 25, 2008 10:40:18 AM
Yes, scam is cheating.
But everyone involved profits from it. The ad creatives get shiny awards that help their careers. Cannes gets millions in entry fees. And publications like Adweek get something to write about.
Posted by: bardi | Jun 25, 2008 11:51:56 AM
Well Bardi, some do profit. But it's a detriment to everyone else.
Ads that never had to answer to a real brief are held up as an example, which is unrealistic. People also get jobs or are promoted over others who had decided not to cheat. Agencies who have won awards for fake ads pop up on consultant's radars which might fool potential clients into thinking it's a creative shiop. Other agencies who enter shows and don't cheat are wasting thousands of dollars competing against agencies who do. Clients who had a scam ad made for them can get bad press and damage the brand when it gets out.
Posted by: M | Jun 25, 2008 12:17:21 PM
The thing is, not everyone does it.
I've worked at great agencies that do great work for real clients.
Some years they've won lots of awards and other years, well, they don't and so they just vow to work harder next year.
Posted by: Lbolle | Jun 25, 2008 1:01:37 PM
The thing is, not everyone does it.
I've worked at great agencies that do great work for real clients.
Some years they've won lots of awards and other years, well, they don't and so they just vow to work harder next year.
Posted by: Lbolle | Jun 25, 2008 1:01:39 PM
I actually think it's an agency's duty to their client to try and create the best work for them. Sometimes it starts with a creative brief and sometimes it's an agency initiated effort to make things happen.
Of course, this shouldn't have been entered in the awards show, but that was the production company's fault - not the agency.
Posted by: Joe Jones | Jun 25, 2008 2:02:02 PM
If the spot was written by a Saatchi creative team--and a copywriter and art director from Saatchi are on the entry form-- it sounds like this was initiated by Saatchi. Maybe the agency just had the "third party vendor" submit the spot to avoid getting client approval? They probably tacked this shoot onto a shoot for a pre-approved Penney ad. Epoch films probably agreed to do the extra footage so they'd have something good for their reel. I can't believe that Saatchi didn't know about this.
Posted by: C | Jun 25, 2008 11:47:08 PM
What about the spot itself? Besides being fake, it seems really quite irresponsible on its own merits. It's clearly a spot promoting teen sex in a basement. And it's clearly aimed directly at teens. Not to mention, how old do these kids look? Sixteen at the most? Doesn't the majority of the country look down on this sort of social behavior. Aren't these kids technically children? And aren't we living in a country with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world? One that's currently on the rise due to both the culture and a lack of proper education? If this "creative" were real, wouldn't it be contributing to this cultural problem. How did this win an award?
Posted by: Just Bad | Jun 27, 2008 11:09:26 PM
