HOLIDAY MARKETERS PLAY THE HUMOR CARD

New York Times - November 7, 2006 – The advertising approach for the coming holiday shopping season is shaping up as more ha-ha-ha than ho-ho-ho.
With Halloween out of the way, Madison Avenue is bringing out campaigns intended to stimulate retail sales for Christmas and Hanukkah. The tack many ads are taking is humorous, ranging from wry subtlety to fall-down slapstick, rather than traditionally sentimental, schmaltzy or straightforward.

“The tone of the season will be upbeat, light-hearted and very positive,” said Pete Woods, vice president for advertising at Lowe’s, the home improvement retailer.

Lowe’s is running a television campaign by BBDO Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group, centered on humorous interactions between employees and customers. In one commercial, a Lowe’s worker and a forgetful shopper play a game of charades: the employee figures out what the customer wants by deciphering her pantomimed gestures for garlands and ornament hooks.

Visitors to what Lowe’s calls the seasonal living department of its stores, stocked with holiday-related merchandise, will find “it’s a very happy place; you just have to smile,” Mr. Woods said. “There’s no reason our advertising shouldn’t reflect that experience.”

The holiday laugh-fest is particularly noticeable in campaigns aimed at younger consumers, who generally cast a skeptical eye at more straight-ahead ads. For instance, a campaign for the cellphones sold by Virgin Mobile USA urges its target audience to have “a bleepin’ awesome holiday season.”

“We’ve never been good at traditional approaches, whether it’s the holidays or not,” said Bob Stohrer, vice president for brand and communications at Virgin Mobile USA, part of NTL.

The company’s campaign last year urged consumers to celebrate an all-inclusive holiday named “Chrismahanukwanzakah.” The ads this year, including a contest involving YouTube, are being created by Mother and StarLink Worldwide, part of the Publicis Groupe.

The shift in holiday ad approaches reflects a change in how consumers celebrate the season. Once, warmly emotional movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street” were in fashion. Now, families are more likely to gather in front of the TV set to watch comedic films like “A Christmas Story” and “ National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

Brian Tierney, group creative director at Fallon Worldwide, owned by Publicis, cited the annual “A Christmas Story” marathon on the TBS cable network as a sign of the times. In that spirit, Fallon produced commercials for the G.P.S. navigational devices sold by Garmin that parody the holiday standard “Carol of the Bells” and show Santa Claus getting a parking ticket outside a mall.

“There’s going to be so much holiday advertising out there, we wanted to put a different spin on it,” Mr. Tierney said. “There’s so much out there that’s ‘retail-y’; we wanted to keep it light and approachable.”

Some of the nation’s largest retailers are trying to tickle funny bones in their holiday efforts. The Gap division of Gap Inc., in a campaign by Laird & Partners, shows Grammy-winner Seal and other celebrities wearing hooded jackets in ads that carry headlines like “ Holiday in your hood.”

A campaign for Best Buy, created internally, pokes gentle fun at the gift mania that overtakes consumers at holiday time. The ads, carrying the theme “Wrap up the wow,” are “about understanding the phases our customers go through,” said Shawn Murnan, director for brand advertising strategies at Best Buy.

Television commercials for the biggest retail chain, Wal-Mart Stores, created by Bernstein-Rein, play like episodes of a TV sitcom. They feature a cast of actors portraying a typical American family, with all its quirks, experiencing the holidays, with all their quirks.

For instance, in one commercial, a man watching a football game with his father-in-law fumbles for the right conversational tack until he mentions he bought the family’s new TV set at Wal-Mart. In another, these words appear on screen next to a man dozing on a recliner: “Prices no one loses sleep over.”

Humor is particularly useful in the retail category as a way to differentiate oneself from competitors at holiday time, marketers say.

“If we took the traditional route, we would’ve blended in with everyone else,” said Marion Black-Ruffin, director for marketing services at ShopLocal, which operates a Web site (shoplocal.com) where consumers can be connected with local retailers.

The ShopLocal holiday campaign, created internally, is centered on a spunky young woman, Eva Yusa, who goes by the sobriquet Eva the Shopping Diva. In one commercial, she asks on camera at the end of the spot: “How was that? Should we do it again?” ShopLocal is owned by three publishers: Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune.

A campaign by Mullen, part of the Interpublic Group, assumes a similarly tongue-in-cheek attitude to promote the Gifts.com Web site, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp. Commercials gently mock gift-givers who consult carnival fortune tellers, psychic hotlines or the Magic 8 Ball toy rather than Gifts.com.

“A lot of retailers tend to go sentimental, with kids around the tree, or take a heavy product focus,” said William Lynch, president and chief executive. “Our service is different; we focus not on what you’re shopping for, but on who you’re shopping for. So we thought our focus should be different.”

Also, using humor “allows us to say ‘There’s a better way of gift-giving’ in a way that’s subtle,” he said, rather than coming across as boastful.

To be sure, not every advertiser is forgoing Santa and snowmen for laughs. For example, a campaign for Kohl’s carries themes like “ ’Tis the season when love transforms everything,” and “Transform your home into a winter wonderland.”

Ads for American Eagle Outfitters show teenagers in winter gear hugging next to a snowy pine tree. “Get in the spirit,” the ads proclaim. “Live your life.” A campaign for Crisco, sold by J. M. Smucker, carries the theme “Joyful inside and out.” And ads for the Children’s Place retail chain, which depict boys and girls in a snowy landscape, run under the theme, “The wonder begins.”

Some advertisers run parallel campaigns, sponsoring traditional ads as well as humorous ones. For instance, the toy catalog published by Target features children, winter settings and coupons. But on the day after Thanksgiving, Target sponsors a silly campaign of funny wake-up calls from celebrities.

Campbell Soup, promoting its Campbell’s green bean casserole recipe, is running prosaic print ads that carry the theme, “Make some holiday magic.” A commercial uses humor to demonstrate the idea: a bough of an evergreen tree reaches into a house through a partly open window and grabs a helping of casserole. The ads and commercial are both created by BBDO.

Also, Home Depot is sponsoring a holiday campaign that uses traditional elements like Mrs. Claus, elves and sleigh rides, but presents them in what Roger Adams, chief marketing officer at Home Depot, describes as a “more fun and upbeat” fashion.

“The holiday spirit brings out the kid in everybody,” Mr. Adams said, “and that’s what we want to play to.” The campaign is created by Digitas, the Richards Group and, for Hispanic ads, the Vidal Partnership.

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), are partners in ShopLocal and other joint ventures to provide consumers online products such as CareerBuilder.com, Cars.com and Apartments.com.

# # #

ShopLocal, ShopLocal.com, SmartCircular, SmartCatalog and SmartMedia are trademarks and Eva the Shopping Diva is a service mark of ShopLocal, LLC. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.