Dearest Gap
Most of you who know me know that I LOVE THE GAP.
Growing up in Japan, visiting the States meant: relatives; long plane rides; toys at Walmart (Yes, Walmart back in the early 90s was my total JAM); and visiting The Gap for the latest and finest. After Gap Inc. landed in the homeland as Gap Japan, I was a slave to the store-LITERALLY (both as a loyal customer, and as a dedicated Sales Associate.)
I have always loved the Gap, and its advertisements. I never knew what they meant with the crazy dance routines and even crazier choices of celebrities (I mean there are SO MANY to choose from) but as soon as that commercial came on, I was GLUED to the TV- I just couldn’t get enough
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m_X1Lm7dqo”
They always left me with feeling that I couldn’t describe, but all I knew was that I wanted to be one of the Gap people, and watch the commercial all over again. Last year, my Branding Class (taught by the one and only Gary Greenberg) had an assignment to “Re-brand Gap using only ONE single celebrity.” Together as a class, we nit-picked the crap out of the iconic brand, concluding that the Gap was now labeled as a “mom store” and that it had clearly lost its steam that it had gathered during the golden years of the 90s-it’s ads confused, lost, and all over the place.
No matter what the research showed, and despite all the criticism of my classmates, I was still a big fan all the Gap ads. Yes, the ads featured countless celebs, models, musicians just dancing around and singing songs, but they all had an element of that good-old Americana, the genuine joy of being carefree. The Gap motto of “You be you.” I loved the portrayal of the message like the one for the “boyfriend pants” with Claire Danes and Patrick Wilson or the Denim Campaign from 2005 with Joss Stone, Jason Mraz, and John Legend (etc) talking about their favorite Jeans. In my mind, it all made sense and came full circle.
All of this brings me to this year: as the holiday season came around, I was excited to see what Gap will do for a holiday campaign commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVMPWlWDvsI
The outcome left me with mixed feelings. It was still people dancing around and singing, but the “Holiday Cheer” commercial was somewhat disappointing. I understand the PUN of “Holiday Cheer” with “Cheering”, but it was confusing to me. Is it a Holiday theme, or a Cheer theme? Clearly it’s supposed to be both, but for the first time, the commercial didn’t leave me with that feeling- You are so mesmerized by the break dancing that you kind of forget about the brand; since the commercial is featuring the entire holiday line, the clothes fail to represent unity; and ….is it just me, or was this commercial kind of like a half baked cake? (the ingredients are there but the product is flimsy) To do an ordinary holiday theme commercial might be dull, but I felt even more cheated by this- cheering for holiday cheer….Seriously?
Since my opinion is not the end all be all, I wanted gather some thoughts from you (if anybody is reading this) the big question mark that popped in my head as my first blog post.
DO YOU THINK THAT THE HOLIDAY CHEER CAMPAIGN WAS DIFFERENT IN A GOOD WAY, OR A BAD WAY?
