When it comes to online retail, JC Penny is a brand that seems to get it. Not only are they making jcp.com their #1 priority this year, but the company also plans to allot much of their $1.4 billion marketing budget to their online marketing efforts.

Well it seems that some of that might have to go into online video and damage control. Not only is video effective at increasing conversions, but the retail giant seems to have a bit of a viral video crisis on their hands. The following edgy, but fake, JC Penny ad recetnly won the international advertising award at Cannes, and the retailer was not only not involved in its production, but it currently trying to have it pulled from the internet before it alienates much of its target demographic.

Essentially, the retailer just (unsuspectingly) inherited a viral video legacy, and it’s going to have really put some effort into its own viral success if it wants the public to associate its brand with a video message that the retailer is actually in control of.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting:

J.C. Penney Co. officials are upset about a racy, fake advertisement on YouTube in which the retailer appears to be endorsing teen sex[…]

The purported ad, which surfaced on the Internet after winning a prestigious international advertising award at Cannes this past weekend, shows two teenagers in their own bedrooms stripping down to their underwear and then timing themselves as they race to put on their clothes. All this is done in preparation for the boy and girl to hang out in her basement while her mother is upstairs.
[…]
Mike Boylson, chief marketing officer for the Plano, Texas, retailer, said he was “terribly disappointed” when he first saw the video Monday, after another Penney official noticed it on blogs that described the video as a Penney ad.

Mr. Boylson said he still was questioning Saatchi late Monday to find out how the video got made and has instructed Saatchi to take any action it can to have the ad removed from the Internet. […]

In a statement late Monday, Saatchi, a unit of Publicis Groupe SA, said the ad was created by a third-party vendor “without J.C. Penney’s knowledge or consent…Saatchi & Saatchi did not enter the spot and deeply regrets the message this ad presents.” Epoch Films, the New York production company that was listed as entering the ad in the Cannes Lions Awards, declined to comment.

Video via Free Williamsburg.

Read more from the original source:
JC Penny Faces Video Vandals

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