I don’t know well JCP, and I hope I don’t offend anyone, but it seems to me a bit desperate. I mean, Apple shares similar high goals but it communicates it more with facts not words. I am confident JCP will be able to follow also with facts, but did it really need all these words?

These are my opinions formed before I read that you were involved.

I also find it to be a lot of words. But I do like the words, and as a whole it projects a completely different (and much better) vibe than I would normally get from JC Penny, which I previously thought of as a moldy old relic of a department store. This ad piques my interest to see how the store is going to back up these words with actions.

Ken –

I, too, emailed Congrats! to RJ. Finally, someone gets the American consumer.

I also suggested that he needs to do more to transform JCP into a shopping “destination” especially for younger female shoppers. I suggested that he go after the young female fashion-minded consumers with a stylized cosmetic and fashion makeover with a low-cost or even free photo session similar to a model portfolio shoot to provide them with photographic mementoes of their shopping at JCP.

I think, and Ron seems to agree, that by going after the young female shopper aggressively you have a shot at making her a JCP shopper for life.

I like the idea of stating your mission.. why do you do what you do? But i’m not sure a print ad is the best way to communicate this message.

Like some others already posted, it’s quite a bit of text. That’s okay if you are doing a TV ad, but i’m not quite sure you communicate the message the best this way. Think of Apple’s “Think Different” campaign.. the TV-ad had the text, the print-ads only the slogan/motto/mission/or what ever you want to call it.

I love the latest line (We want to be your favorite store). It has some modesty in it, some message that they will work their asses off to make sure you will think that way.

I’m really excited about this — can’t wait to see what Ron does.

It’ll probably be instructive for us all.

Ron’s taking over at JPC was a confusing one at first for sure, but for a man with that much energy and passion, having the job of reinventing a quite outdated, and in my eyes, drab retail brand made perfect sense. I’m both anxious and excited to see how one man can influence the entire culture of a national brand.

As for the ad, it’s fine. Visually it’s clean and corporate. The clouds are a little played out for my taste. As for the copy it’s good. Well written and honest in tone. Almost had me wanting to shop there once they ‘re-open’.

One question to the copy. Are the indented lines meant to be read by themselves, sort of like a poem?

Why would people complain about reading copy in a newspaper? I like the idea of the fresh start and the statement has a very inviting ‘come along for the ride’ tone that is quite fun. It does remind me a little bit of the Domino’s campaign though.

I’ve become quite tired of the tricks chain stores play to get you to shop – all that “earning rewards” and dealing with coupons that only apply to some items usually just leave me frustrated. It’s no wonder I end up buying online. I’m excited to see JCP get some of the Apple Magic, and there is a store right across from my house so I will be keeping my eye on it.

My first thought was this wasn’t about the design as much as it was the mission statement. It has two logos – are we jcp or jcpenny? why is the logo in the corner of a bigger red box? The background is a default sky background or 1.99 stock photo at best. (It almost would have been better black and white words on a page with the logo in the corner – the words say it all). This is a way to explain not just to the public, but more to the employees how they need to think in this new era. I hope it works – i hate going into those giant dept stores. I have zero interest in wading through their tousled wears (ha) jammed into a too-small round rack and falling off the hangers. He needs to make it the Nordstroms of affordable department stores… but better.

Well, if The Gap and Target could be made “cool” then I suppose anything is possible. It seems, though, that JC Penny has quite a deep “brand equity hole” to climb out of. If I were to tell any of my peers I shopped at JC Penny I would be met with looks of disbelief and derisive comments. I suspect at this point even Sears has a more appealing brand than JC Penny. I hopr they are not just pouring old wine into a new bottle, but completely re-inventing the wine.

I think this ad is a good start. I will tell you why: Our mailbox is full of flyers from Macy’s, Limited, etc. touting Tuesday sale, Wednesday sale, so on and so forth.

Somewhere in the back of our minds, we always feel cheated paying non coupon/discounted prices because of these non-stop sales. Even when we do have coupons, we suspect a higher discount is around the corner. I don’t want to worry about the true price of a product, ever. I don’t worry about being gouged at Amazon, Walmart or Sam’s club and so I shop there freely.

If JCP can bring the same “fearlessness” to my wardrobe shopping, it will be a success.

Love it. I’m in.

Sell me an experience, Ron, and I’ll be back every week.

Ken,

First I have to say I feel absolutely ridiculous doing this, as I’ve had the ultimate respect for you and your work for the past…forever. I’m really impressed that you’d invite a critique, especially in a forum where people are so comfortable being ignorant and nasty.

So at Ogilvy under Steve Hayden, I learned how to critique work objectively, I’ll do my best to do so here: 6 criteria, one star for each, to a total of 6.0 for a perfect ad.

–WHAT YOU SAY–
1. Plot: Does the ad communicate it’s point?

Full star. Takeaway is very clear, and inspiring: jcp wants to be my favorite store.

2. Benefit: What’s in it for me, emotionally?

Full star. I hate shopping at department stores, and I would readily welcome being able to count on one to be my go-to, reliable store.

3. Credibility: True to brand, believable stats, stories.

No star. I think the reason I believe is in your setup: Mr. Johnson has an amazing track record. JCP, unfortunately, does not, and without that context the ad doesn’t give me much reason to believe. Think Different worked because Apple had been awesome, and many people loved it and wanted to see it regain its awesomeness.

– HOW YOU SAY IT –

4. Concrete: Simple, relatable, visual

No star. I wouldn’t be able to see this ad and then explain it verbally to anyone. The logo is abstract and void of meaning, the background is abstract and unclear in meaning, and the language is conceptual and not descriptive and unrelated to the visual. Think Different gave us cultural icons as touch points, and we got their entire context to relate to- Lennon for peace, Ghandi for independence, Henson for creativity.

5. Twist: The unexpected, delightful smile-in-the-mind

Half star. To take such a simple, copy-only approach to the department store ad is a breath of fresh air, and not what may have been the expected approach. Unfortunately it doesn’t delight. The imagery is lacking in charm.

6. Simplicity.

Half star. Glad it’s not crammed with visual distractions. The copy stays on point and tells a single, coherent story. But it’s just sort of…long. It could have been half the words and told just as much. Anything that could be cut, should be cut, until anything else you remove breaks the whole ad.

–
So, in total: 3 out of 6.

Ken, thanks again for posting this, for inviting comments, and for all of your great work over the years. I hope its clear that I’m posting this for your readers’ sake, to see how to evaluate ads. I don’t think I could presume to tell you what makes a good ad.

That Apple ad looks horrible with all of that text. I’m glad they backed off of that quickly.

One thing’s for sure. That logo looks MUCH better and your colors are great here. If they’re able to one-up Target in terms of attracting a similar demographic AND convey this sort of electricity in their stores, that’ll be a big win for the customer also.

So the new logo is the red square with the blue square in the upper left? I like it.

As a 110 year old company, JCP is a piece of Americana. The colors, and the position of the blue square with white inside, make the new logo reminiscent of the American flag.

I wish them well.

@Christian
You have to remember, when that first “Think Different” ad hit the streets, Steve Jobs had just come back aboard at Apple. Apple had no new products at the time – the iMac was still months away. Looking back, many have come the the realization that “Think Different” was not so much directed at consumers as it was a call to arms to Apple’s own employees, reminding them of what was important and that management felt their pain. I see Ron’s manifesto in the same light. You dismiss it as mere words, but in the realm of humanity, words have power.

@ Ken

Okay, didn’t know Apple was also advertising a version with the text.. But the fact that I don’t know those ads, but I do know the ones with the pictures of their heroes, still makes my point :)

What I don’t get is that why you have this ad, with the line “fair and square” in the middle of the text as part of the whole piece, and the tag line at the end in bold, but you are going to use the fair and square line as a “slogan”. You always say how ad’s should only have one slogan/motto/tagline (Dell is really bad in this as you pointed out many times), but now you are kinda doing the same.

I had been in a Southern California JCP store in early January, and had noticed some major changes. The whole impression of the store is that the atmosphere has been “cleaned up” and “simplified” and “calmed”… just simple white banners reading “January Sale”. No clutter, no flyers, no coupons. Items have also received obvious price decreases… a $34 item that I had purchased in December using “spend $25 or more, get $10 off” coupons from a newspaper insert and a direct mailing now has a grey $22 sticker permanently affixed to the price tag in January, covering up the old price. Not a sale price, just the new “standard” price. The newspaper inserts and the direct mailings have basically stopped, which must be a tremendous cost savings to JCP (but a loss in revenue for the newspapers and the US Postal Service.) Now I understand what is behind the changes in the JCP store that I had already noticed. (But I never did figure out what was “on sale” in the store during the “January Sale”.)