JC Penny is the new Abercrombie?

This ad is so far off what JC Penny should be doing I wonder if it's a spoof. Kids don't shop at JC Penny. Kids' moms shop at JC Penny. It's a department store, and as long as they're selling cookware, they're not going to be a cool place to shop. I think it's a great concept, just... JC Penny?


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I'm just relieved they're not still using "It's all inside." as a tagline.

UPDATE: Not by Saatchi, JC Penny's agency. Not approved by JC Penny. Never ran anywhere. Bronze Lion to be revoked.

I have nothing to add.

That was perfect.

This started running Sunday. And it got the ultimate payoff on its message on Monday. Good one by W+K.

Listen to Lando

This is a recent spot for AT&T Advanced TV. I like it. I don't think it tells you why they're better than cable. But that's not the point. What I think is interesting about this spot is that Billy Dee seems to be reprising his well-known spokes-character from another spot:



While this is likely intentional on the part of AT&T's agency, I like to think it's just Billy Dee being himself.

Ira Glass is telling me what I need to hear

Maybe some of you need it to.

via bad banana blog.

Open to interpretation

This is a little old. But sometimes things take awhile to cross the Atlantic.

Hilarious.

Somethin' for nothin'

Converse is giving away a free song, "My Drive Thru" on their website. It was done by Julian Casablancas, N.E.R.D., and some chick named Santogold I probably should have heard of already. It's a great song, and an ideal summer anthem. When I finally get around to making a summer playlist, it'll be on it.

But it didn't make me want new shoes.

I'm all for offering the consumer something extra to bring them to you. That ingratiates you to them. But then you have to capitalize on it. Converse has made no effort here to connect the song to their brand or their product, except to suggest I come back for another (brief) visit to the (not terribly engaging) site and see the video.

I bet the agency talks about how many hits the homepage gets this week. But I bet they don't say how many more shoes were sold online.

They did somethin', yeah. But I think they did it for nothin'.

A new idea about old technology

Because it's brilliant. And because it's Radiohead. I'll let the artist handle the explanation:

"I'm a student graduating from the Glasgow School of Art's visual communication course in a few days. This is my final project.

Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In Rainbows" This was quite a difficult task for everybody that entered, as Nude is in 6/8 timing, and 63bpm. Most music that's played in clubs is around 120bpm and usually 4/4 timing. It's pretty difficult to seamlessly mix a waltz beat into a DJ set.

This resulted in lots of generic entries consisting of a typical 4/4 beat, but with arbitrary clips from "Nude" thrown in so that they qualified for the contest.

Thom Yorke joked at the ridiculousness of it in an interview for NPR radio, hinting that they set the competition to find out how people would approach such a challenging task.

I decided to take the piss a bit, as the contest seemed to be in that spirit.

Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.

It doesn't sound great, as it's not supposed to.

I missed the contest deadline, so I'm offering it here for you to enjoy.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Guitars (rhythm & lead)
Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer - Drums
HP Scanjet 3c - Bass Guitar
Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers - Vocals & FX"


Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

And the original song, for the uninitiated:

...and we're back.

It's been almost exactly a year. Apparently I'm either working smarter or just less, and so I've decided to try to fit blogging into my life again. More posts to follow.