May 19, 2013 Post #8 JcPenney's Advertising Equality

Typical advertisment from a JcPenney catalog

In the advertising world, just like in the Merchants of Cool on PBS's Frontline, change in order to come out on top is key. Finding the new thing to push boundaries and gain more revenue is the name of the game. Now, JcPenney is stepping up to the plate and taking a swing. Recently, in a JcPenney advertisement, they included families that aren't typically depicted in advertisement.

 

JcPenney's daring plung into a new world of advertising ended in the firing of JcPenney CEO Ron Johnson for allowing the advertisements to hit catalogs and commercials. When Ellen DeGeneres became the spokesperson in JcPenney commercials, the floodgates opened and were unleashed unto the public. Organizations like the American Family Association frowned upon JcPenney's decision to depart from the store's longstanding values. Soon after, the American Family Association's One Million Moms complained, but Johnson stuck with the ad campaign. Then, two more direct hits occurred: Mother's Day and Father's Day. Immediately after the two traditional days were disrupted with what the American Family Association would not call traditional relationships, JcPenney stock dropped and never recovered. And following after, Johnson was fired.

Personally, I applaud JcPenney for taking a stab at diversity but I can't help noticing that, while they have made a significant move toward advertising equality, there is no ethnic diversity. All I see is white. White faces, white clothes and white furniture. You'd think that if JcPenney is taking such a risk as this, they could throw in a couple of non-white people. Why not hit the trifecta? Interracial homosexual parents raising ethnically diverse, crippled children. That would take the American Family Association for a surprise.

Now this is more like it! Not a giant slab of white spread across a blank page. I could focus on the irony of it being a black friday ad when they decide to be more ethnically diverse, but there is probably nothing behind it. (P.S. I'm not a racist. It may seem that way, but if it does, doesn't that make you, dear reader, the racist one?) CRISSCROSS.

Nevertheless, I am proud that JcPenney is taking the challange, or a least tried, at attempted advertising equality. Progress is still progress, and while the American Family Association has its rights to disagree with JcPenney's advertising techniques, it is unfortunate that because of their beliefs JcPenney's CEO was fired and an advertisement aimed at advancement was squashed.

Possible techniques used in the JcPenney ads were testimonial because of the use of Ellen DeGeneres and plain folks because, despite what the American Family Association believes, these families shown above are typical and there was nothing really special about them, except for the fact that they appeared in a JcPenney ad and caused a scandal in the advertising world.