Trying to Get the Genie Back in the Bottle
J.C. Penney is learning the hard way that once something is released on the Web, it’s nearly impossible to get it back.
A fake ad features two teenagers (a boy and a girl) timing themselves on how quickly they can get dressed. The subtle message is they are preparing themselves to do “the nasty” in the basement of the girl’s house while her mother reads upstairs.
J.C. Penney is a PR lather because the ad is based on its tag line “Every Day Matters”. As a result, it wants its ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, to “remove it from the Web”.
Ha!
Given how quickly content can be distributed, reformatted, etc., getting a video pulled from the Web is like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
You can understand why J.C. Penney wants to avoid a PR nightmare but the more it screams and shouts at Saatchi to eliminate all signs of the ad, the more attention the ad will get, which is what J.C. Penney is trying to apparently avoid.
Gawker is suggesting J.C. Penney might launched a lawsuit against the ad’s creators, which would likely generate even more PR.
For those of you who want to see the ad:
Technorati Tags: J.C. Penney
June 24th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
It’s almost too obvious a point to make (almost, but not quite - at least not for yours truly, Captain Obvious himself) - but just imagine how much cooler their staid, dusty old brand would seem in the eyes of affluent teenagers throughout the US if they embraced this instead of trying to slap it down.
Brand credibility fail!
June 24th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Mark, what do you mean “fake” ad? Was it created by Saatchi? If so, was it not meant to be made public? Or was it not created by Saatchi but intended to look like a real J.C. Penney ad?
June 25th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Well, they’re real but apparently produced and released without permission by a firm that works for Saatchi. So, they’re really unauthorized. The “fake” part is that they people think they’re real…if that makes sense.
Mark
June 25th, 2008 at 10:34 am
I think the commercial is fantastic.
It’s a shame they made it for such a staid company like JC Penny.
If a client wants to ’sue’ their vendor then the client needs to take responsibility for vendor selection as JC Penny obviously made the wrong choice in partners.
Pesonally I think the reason why JC Penny is finding fault with this advertisement is exactly whats wrong with the JC Penny brand - old foggeys who dont have a clue.
Listen to your marketing consultants….this is exactly what the brand needs.
Cheers,
Dean Collins
http://www.Cognation.net
June 25th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
You might want to read Techdirt’s take on this - http://techdirt.com/articles/20080624/1504301500.shtml. Perhaps this is all about generating more PR.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:33 am
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June 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
@ Larry. Yeah, I think Mike Masnick makes a great point. It’s the “Methinks the lady doth protest too much” approach to marketing.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:34 am
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