CO Bigelow

Today's gentle installment into the world of "Should it say 'Buy This!' or 'Get This!'" comes with a shout out to the Junior Files only reader Lauren Z., who, to the extreme surprise of this writer, asked why I hadn't written anything new in a while. This incredible turn of events coupled with the fact that the poll has nearly doubled in votes overnight has answered the age old question," If a junior art director blogs in the woods, will somebody read it?"

In lieu of such good news I felt it was the perfect opportunity to trash a campaign, because lets face it when you're up you're a bit cocky.

C.O. Bigelow products are sold throughout the US at various large chain-y Bath and Bodyworks style shops and boutiques. The brand is styled after an old fashioned snake oil apothecary style to beauty. Bigelow emphasizes the scientific technology their chemists created 168 years ago in New York City with use of simple ingredients and some catchy copy on their bottles. Great story. Great product. Their product packaging:

Is something I consider brand delicious. Simple, clean but magically transporting me on the set Deadwood. Holding this in my hand, I imagine claw foot bathtubs and the gentle sipping of hot whiskey for my ailing consumption. And with visions of curly mustaches, bowler hats and a scratchy victrola, I go to bigelowchemist.com and find this:

And perhaps in a strange twist of events or cosmic ad magic, the music stopped.

Literally, my pandora music station stopped and pathetically informed me of its new policy for limited free music. (Which I need to express, will be the death of pandora.)

Now I know what you're thinking readers (Lauren), "It's really not THAT bad, is it?" But when you peg today's age of fast moving flashy web pages, impeccably well designed branding styles and a consumers nearly heroine dependent addiction for the new cool you have to ask yourself, is doing bare minimum worse? 

CO Bigelow is really missing the boat on this one, and I have to admit sadly that its negligence has changed the way that I viewed the brand. In short, CO Bigelow's package design to website transition has left me feeling abandoned.

I found my mustachioed gentleman, fell in love then realized he has a Taz tattoo on the inside of his arm. 

BaMadMen Republic

Jumping into this hectic career choice inevitably comes comes with its price. Late nights and endless deadlines, and invariably having family members tell you "winning" commercial ideas they thought of in the shower. 

One of the perks to this business, however, is that you are compared to AMC's brilliant take on the advertising world in MadMen. "Yes," you will boldly claim to your aunt Tildy, "I am Don Draper." 

Recently Banana Republic decided this bold showing of the 50's ad man biz was worthy of good suit and partnered with Lionsgate for the promotion along with followers Clorox, Vanity Fair and Variety. 

Though this may be no great feat of advertising genius it did provide a great sense of what a good suit can mean to a man.

And lets face it, Jon Hamm can sell just about anything:

One thing I really love about this is that Banana Republic has decided to take on a quieter approach to branding themselves to the hit show. Rather than take on an obnoxious approach like GM's screaming logo treatments in Michael Bay's Transformers they simply tagged themselves in the corner and let you see the show. 

Print for this campaign seems pretty cut and dry though I would like to take a moment to compare their ads:

To a print ad I made in my second semester portofolio class:

Interactive for this brand/show marriage is also pretty great though I'm not sure if BRep had anything to do with it (this may be the work of 8 O'clock Coffee), but such free publicity are the perks of tagging yourself with such a beloved show. 

Overall I give Banana Republic a tip of the brandy glass for this move.