JC Penney, the 110-year-old department store, realized the need for a refresh. But as with any change in a brand, a corporation’s most valuable asset, there needs to be a reason, a customer reason, backing it. What is the consumer insight? Is the rebrand a stretch or within JCP’s brand DNA? Will it be enough [...]
A few months ago I was asked to watch the Super Bowl to study the advertisements. Coming from India, I was completely new to American football and the Super Bowl. As I watched advertisers compete aggressively for 30 seconds of our attention during breaks in the championship game, I realized this scenario was quite familiar [...]
Every movie lover remembers his or her Oscars experiences differently, but for me, the Academy Awards mean singing, dancing, crying, laughing, and Billy Crystal. In my lifetime, Billy Crystal has hosted the Academy Awards nine times. Crystal first hosted the show in 1989, the year I was born. He graciously returned as a host on [...]
Editor’s Note: As part of a recurring series, we have asked several contributors to write about advertising that made an impact on them. This first piece shares the perspective of two Motor City imports on Chrysler’s recent Detroit-centered campaign. There is no question Detroit has an image problem. Journalists visit our city to write fluff [...]
As a traditional part of the Lunar New Year celebration, the Spring Festival Gala on Mainland China’s Central Television (CCTV) is China’s version of the Super Bowl. It isn’t a sports event, but both shows are long-running TV events with enormous audiences. This year’s Spring Festival Gala celebrated its 30th anniversary and attracted around 770 [...]
Vitamin IMC staff and graduate students in Northwestern University’s Medill IMC program reviewed and voted on the best and worst ads from Super Bowl XLVI. Here is a rundown on our top choices. Let us know what you think? Did we get it right? The Best These top ads ran away with the votes, and [...]
Vitamin IMC staff encourage friends of the blog to live tweet Super Bowl XLVI. Let us know what you think of the ads or chat with us about which ads left an impression. Simply tag your tweets with #vimcbowlads and join the conversation with @vitaminimc. We will start tweeting when the game begins at 6 [...]
The challenge facing many businesses today is finding new ways to grow and create value for stakeholders, usually with limited resources available. This challenge has given rise to a new approach to problem solving: design thinking. A much-discussed concept of late, design thinking is a methodology for finding creative solutions to problems or issues that [...]
By Diana Lopez Negrete Kraft Foods recently debuted a series of television ads for its Athenos Hummus line that are not only sexist but also blatantly racist. However, according to a Chicago Tribune online poll, people are not offended by the ads. In fact, the Chicago Sun Times gave the ads a B+, saying that [...]
