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Enjoy this lovely fake winter with L.L. Bean
There are two points of interest in this unabashedly sappy GSD&M Idea City holiday spot for L.L. Bean. One is the appearance of page numbers all around the family's house. It's like a Twilight Zone episode where everyone discovers they're trapped inside an L.L. Bean catalog—and therefore, in hell. The other intriguing note, not apparent from the clip but flogged in the press release, is that "Sticks+Stones director Jerry Brown created an intimate white Christmas, shot on a 95 degree day in Pasadena." L.L. Bean catalog, Pasadena—it really is hell. The spot's title is "Making Christmas," which is apt, as they had to actually make the snow that's falling and the white-powder terrain. If it underscores the "phoniness" of holiday sales pitches, at least the client didn't have to pay for an Aspen junket to capture the perfect winter tableau. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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December 2, 2008 in Apparel, Gianatasio, GSD&M Idea City, L.L. Bean | Permalink |
Comments
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the other good part about this is that the song is from Fountains of Wayne... generally known as satrists of varying genres (Think Stacy's Mom)
Nice in execution, bad in concet.
Posted by: | Dec 2, 2008 11:20:46 AM
Way to ruin one of my favorite FoW songs...
Posted by: | Dec 2, 2008 3:27:08 PM
wah wah wah...it's LL Bean...would you prefer an off-brand, hip message in their spots?
LL Bean sells flannel and boots...and guns...and camping gear...it's a family business and wants to maintain that image; an old school brand that embodies heartwarming nostalgia.
Maybe you're too cynical and jaded to appreciate good value with a lifetime warranty.
At least they didn't just shoot pages from their catalog like they did when JWT ran the account. Give them some credit for trying. Jeeeez!
Posted by: ML | Dec 2, 2008 9:28:12 PM
Sorry ML but this spot is so confused and convoluted it screams, "the agency may have had a vision at one point, but during the millions of rounds of revisions it lost all focus and purpose." It seems like the agency thought adding a somewhat hip song over the vanilla images might work. But in the end someone should have recognized that it makes no sense and you basically wonder who let this out the door. I am pretty certain no one is high-fiving what a great spot this is, clients or agency - simply 'trying' doesn't cut it and makes everyone look bad.
Posted by: badbean | Dec 3, 2008 7:25:05 AM
LL Bean changes agencies every other month, and every spot they've ever produced looks, sounds, and feels exactly like this one. Soft, dull, sappy, and confusing. But you can't blame the agency. The next agency (next year) will do the exact same thing.
Posted by: DS | Dec 3, 2008 8:23:44 AM
that's exactly right. you can only blame the agency if they actually think it's good.
Posted by: JB | Dec 3, 2008 9:21:32 AM
Jeez, were you guys on the losing end of the live-action bid or something?
Look at the 11 comments it has on YouTube...real people actually like this spot and feel the holiday spirit from it.
Sure, it's sappy...but I think that's what they're going for.
Also...calling a song that came out 3+ years ago "hip" just proves that "hip" should probably be removed from the advertising lexicon.
Let's dig a little deeper here...so you've got the graphic treatment with pages numbers...kinda lame? Sure...but LL Bean's sales are like 50% catalog orders...and do you know how many millions of people thumb through LL Bean catalogs while they're taking a dump? I feel like we should get some metrics on that.
They're reaching out to their demo here...not trying to win a Cannes Gold. Get over it.
Posted by: ML | Dec 3, 2008 1:25:40 PM
