Brett Favre can't even decide on a television

Passing for a whopping 4 yards, Brett Favre didn't give fans much to talk about during his Friday debut with the Minnesota Vikings. But if there's one thing that has kept people buzzing, it's the Sears commercial above, which made its own debut this weekend. It's a great example of dry wit and an understated celebrity cameo (i.e., no one yelling "Hey, look, it's veteran quarterback Brett Favre, who agonized for more than a year about whether to return to the NFL!"). The spot gets bonus points for being entertaining while still explaining the benefits of Sears' real-time price-check service. Now I can feel confident that I'm getting the absolute best price on that baby-grilling body-part roaster.

—Posted by David Griner

See also:
Brett Favre: pretty good at advertising, too
Sears not an expert on video-game systems

Published on August 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (4)
Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Electronics, Griner, Sears

Launch of 'Good News Now' not great news

For those who require only one side of the story—the positive side—Sears and AOL have launched Good News Now at GNN.com. The lead story when I looked: "Senior Couple Ties Knot." There was also an ironically unironic video of a skateboarding bulldog that "rolls through Japan." And who picks the "Good News Weather"? For me, they chose Seattle, where it rains a lot. Why not hard-code Honolulu, where it's sunny and 89 all the time? The smilin' home handymen and backyard barbecuers in the Sears banners, gleefully gripping power drills and spatulas with the expressions of maniacs toting handguns, elevate the forced sense of (awkward, marketing-driven) goodwill into the realm of parody. There's a weekend countdown clock that ticks away the days, hours, minutes and seconds. Sigh ... such a long way to go. Despite the venue's copius good intentions, that makes me sad.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on June 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under AOL, Gianatasio, Sears

Sears hops a ride on the un-site bandwagon

Since Agency.com's Skittles project got rapped for paying homage to Modernista's un-site, it's time to go after Izea. The company, which also brokers sponsored blog posts, has a program for Sears using the same approach. Bustedmoms.com is not really a site but rather a gaudy frame around a Sears Facebook page. There, down-on-their-luck moms are invited to tell tales of woe in hopes of getting a $2,500 "mommy makeover." My guess is that as this approach becomes more popular, people will stop crying "ripoff" each time it's done.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on March 27, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Izea, Morrissey, Sears

Sears not an expert on video-game systems

Judging by this back-to-school ad (click to enlarge), Sears doesn't fully grasp the concept of "playing hard," a phrase reserved for things more physically taxing than sitting on one's ass playing video games. But there are greater inaccuracies here: The kid is playing Metal Gear Solid 4, a PlayStation 3 game, with an Xbox 360 controller. Sears is clueless about video games? Color me shocked and appalled! Seriously, I'm finding it hard to get too upset about this. And I'm not alone—even the commenter nerds at Kotaku aren't getting that worked up. Maybe they're like me and accept that Sears has enough trouble organizing its stores, let alone keeping gaming systems straight.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on August 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (7)
Filed under Kiefaber, Print, Sears, Video games