Now this is funny! It’s always a crap shoot when a brand selects a celebrity to represent it in an ad campaign. Mostly because it’s never believable the celebrity would actually purchase the product or service they’re representing. Not that that’s any different with Kohl’s and Jennifer Lopez but they way these new McCann Erickson-created Kohl’s commercials link Lopez and the brand, it’s mostly irrelevant.
The campaign, promoting new clothing lines from Lopez and Marc Anthony was conceived prior to the couple’s split. In one commercial, Lopez is blocked by a security guard from entering Kohl’s headquarters because he doesn’t know who she is. Thankfully Lopez doesn’t throw the predictable celebrity hissy fit, rather subtly tries to remind the guard of her fame. It doesn’t work. But the low key humor does.
Another commercial features Lopez annoying some Kohl’s employees by incessantly clicking her pen. Again, the slowly building humor works.
Anthony appears in two commercials. The first has him fighting with a Kuereg which refuses to brew his coffee even though, as demonstrated by a Kohl’s employee, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the coffee maker. In the second, Anthony answers a phone at the Kohl’s reception desk…without any help from that security guard who had no idea who Lopez was.
We like the whole understated, celebrity-is-irrelevant approach taken by this campaign. Obviously the use of Lopez and Anthony gives the campaign notoriety but the way they are portrayed prevents the campaign from becoming your typical, also-ran, celebrities-rule-the-world approach most other brands take. At which they fail miserably.
Kudos to the team behind this work.
