October 10, 2006
At Audrey's Expense, Skinny Black Pants a Hit
Well, do a dance on Audrey Hepburn's grave - the Gap credits the black skinny pants with helping their sales last month, no small part due to the Audrey Hepburn and AC/DC commercial. One Gap manager in Staten Island tells the Daily News, "We can't keep them in. It brought in the mother, the grandmother, the granddaughter. Little kids come in and try on a size 0." And a mother who bought the pants for her daughter said, "I'm going to rent 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' for her so she can get a feel for Audrey's elegance.'" Huh, ever think of renting Funny Face, the movie that Audrey is actually dancing in?
Gothamist is not a fan of the ad - it makes us pity Audrey, hate "Back in Black" and want to run for cover, which is difficult, since the commercial plays on every single channel. It's interestingly jarring the first time you watch it, but then, upon airing after airing, you realize that the two things have nothing to go with each other and then you're left with a case of the mean reds.
AdFreak also noted the cringeworthiness of the ads. The LA Times reported that Hepburn's son Sean Ferrer did work with the Gap and did approve the ads, so there's nothing we can do about it, except lobby the Rainiers and beg them not to sell footage of Grace Kelly in High Society to the Gap.
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the two things actually do "have something to go with eachother"
she's wearing skinny black jeans, and they're back (in black)
i think its a good ad.
jen..aren't you in advertising? we know you wont disclose the agency (UNLESS YOU WANT TO? PLEASE?) but would you at least enlighten us to what department you work in? i get a feeling it isn't creative.
Ha! Good call - I haven't officially been in the creative department, but I have done copywriting (mainly I've done strategic planning, brand consulting, account management - you name it).
Okay, so Audrey is wearing black and AC/DC is singing about black. Big deal. I hate the ads - they ruin my associations of Funny Face and Back in Black, as it were.
But, if the point is to get people talking about them, then the Gap accomplished that. I don't have to like 'em, that's all.
Add me to the haters,
I never was "breakfast at tiffany's" guy, I'm more "barefoot in the park". A fuddie duddie.
Now I gotta go patch that hole in the skylight before it snows.
ummm, what's wrong with the ad? it's eye-catching, she looks good, the audio and video are in sync. it has several of the same features of the apple ipod ads. i don't know how anyone could see this ad and not notice it. even better, most people probably don't even realize it's gap ad (skinny black jeans). it's very effective, reasonably creative and entertaining. it's a shame whoever picked the music wasn't under 30 - something more contemporary would have broadened the the appeal.
wait a sec, jen. you did copywriting? how long did it take before you were shifted to another department?
I think she's joking about the copywriting. Pure comedy gold.
The ads really annoy me. Mainly because it runs like every other minute. I'm glad that Gap is making money off of it. I'm surprised there are such adamant defenders. Its' just a commercial. creative, it may be, but it got old pretty quick.
these ads make me wanna throw up. It's like "Hey I'm a dead icon recently exhumed with photoshop and CGI so my relatives can make a pretty mint profiting off my ashes and estate by prostituting my image to money whore corporations. please kill me again!"
I don't like this ad mainly because Audrey Hepburn was a private person and would have been appalled.
just to clarify, audrey's son sean ferrer is not connected to the gap.
however, he is connected with and very friendly with getty images. they got him to agree & the ad agency took it from there.
I don't like this ad because Audrey Hepburn would not support big businesses with a history of sweatshop labor.
And it totally ruins her awesome Funny Face moves which are truly joyous in the film---Audrey wanted to be a dancer before she became a film star and humanitarian.
when i think of audrey i think of
AC/DC?????
NO!
oil and water!
whats next...Liz Taylor and Twisted Sister?
Does anyone younger then 25 actually know who Audrey Hepburn is?
The ads sucks out loud. It's like someone got the Manatees to pull two subject balls out of their vast pool to make the concept. Visually it makes no sense with the audio. Those two things should jibe. But what do I know about fashion? The pants are selling themselves.
Straight. Up. Fucking. Annoying.
1. The ad's on all the time.
2. AC/DC, what have you done?
3. Silly faces while dancing from Audrey Hepburn: bad.
4. Silly faces from Hepburn while AC/DC is on: even worse.
This is quickly becoming the most aggravating ad to me since the Pepsi girl started lip-synching to various voices in ads.
I was actually thinking of a TrimSpa ad with Anna Nicole and "You Shook Me All Night Long" playing along...
Yeah, okay... sick f***
at least it's not HEAD ON
By even posting this on your blog, you're giving FREE ADVERTISING to the Gap.
hahaha i think every comment thread should have a head on reference
anyone ever used it?
and jen: as a strategic planner, which phrase have you used in more pitches in 2006: "viral" "blogs" or "guerilla" ?
A person doesn't have to be alive during your lifetime for you to have an awareness of their existence. Charade is one of my favorite movies. This reminds me of the self-proclaimed "smart" and "better educated" liberal friend of mine that made reference to George H. W. Bush's "second term". His defense was that he was only 14 in 1992.
If ad execs could raise the dead and make them zombies this is what they'd do with them. If you're over 40 you generally hate these ads and if you're under 30 you generally don't care about anything.
Don't think they don't know that either~
I don't care if the ads are good or bad, I'm not touching those skinny pants! They make my body look like a hot air balloon!
Hubert Givengy was a pallbeaer at Audrey's funeral do you think she would have shopped at the gap?
I was in Paris this weekend and this Gap campaign was't running there...no pushing of skinny black pants even. I wonder if Gap didn't get international rights to use Audrey.
I hate the ads, they make her move in crude ways. The ad ruins Audrey's image.
I hate this ads also, but the connection to NY seems tenuous at best. Unless Gothamist is part of their "viral" campaign, which makes this post herpes. Now I feel that much closer to Carlos D.
These ads ARE annoying. Also, now i see women in the streets who have on all black w/ the skinny black pants and it looks like the Gap vomited all over them. Guess the campaign is working!
If the GAP is crediting the skinny black pants with increasing their sales, how come I have yet to see anyone wearing a pair of these pants? All I keep hearing are women complaining they could never pull of the look because it makes hips, thighs and butts look bigger than they really are.
So who in heck is wearing them? Are tourists taking them back to their countries thinking this is "hot New York Style"?
"...it's a shame whoever picked the music wasn't under 30 - something more contemporary would have broadened the the appeal."
[4] Posted by: brightelectricyummy | October 10, 2006 6:27 PM
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I don't think of Audery Hepburn in skinny black pants. I think of Jackie "O" A.K.A Mrs. John F. Kennedy. They couldn't use her, of course, because she is even classier and more sophisticated then Audrey Hepburn, not to mentin too political.
In any event, I don't know what the blogger is talking about in terms of contemporary music for broader appeal. What?
It was probably someone over 30 that had enough sense and taste to use such a sophisticated person as, Audrey Hepburn, who can sport leisure in a way everyone can understand, to sell GAP. Her appeal can not get any broader. The Audrey in the ad is old and young. Even fat girls want to get into the skinny pants. And I am sure guys want to start wearing them again also. It would take an over 30 person to intelligently select the music as well. It is like chosing wine for an upscale meal. You have to have experience with aged wines, grapes, and barrel flavors to make it compliment the meal successfully.
To chose comtemporary music would cheapen the image of Audrey Hepburn. Because today's music and clothing style can not touch the era of Audrey Hepburn. The entire era which surrounds her is about depth,creativity, great acting, great script writers. That is why she is a standard and a classic role model for entertainment. You meet standards where they are not bring them down to sub standard ideas (of today's contemporary music).
The ad should remain true to the music of the era. The dancing in the ad is a bit ackward. However, the image of a "cool" person from time past is refreshing. I like seeing her on TV channels other then TCM or PBS.
But I don't like the idea of tarnishing her image and making it cheesey by associating her with a brand other then Tiffanys. It is kind of corny because Gap is like Wal Mart, LOW END.
I read a great quote somewhere (sorry, I really can't remember where, I think it was a newspaper)- "The Gap was only able to find one person who looks good in those skinny black pants, and she's dead."
The "And now ... A word from our sponsor" blog had a funny take on this commercial that I agree with (http://andnowawordfromoursponsor.wordpress.com/2006/09/28/acduh-c/)
Audrey is NOT in sync with the music (as someone previously commented), and it's really annoying!
I hate the ads. But what I find annoying is that she isn't even wearing fucking Gap pants, because there was no Gap back then!
Thanks Anna, I thought my rhythm was off. I figured that they were forcing the beat to fit her moves or the other way around.
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Constant Dater: Very good point also funny point. But the Gap does not own the copy right pattern to skinny black pants.
This ad blows because it's such a knee-jerk response to the tired "Breakfast" resurgence that's been dragging on for too long. And everyone knows that's the least inspired AC/DC song possible to choose from- as if any of their songs is inspired.
They could have at least chosen "Big Balls"...
i also haven't seen many ladies in the skinny black pant. which only points to one thing: they're sexy in the dressing room when you're imagining what you could wear them with, then you get self concious when you're actually going to go out in them.
im sure the majority of skinny black jeans sold are in the bottom of drawers.
which sucks, because theyre hot.. what's wrong with big asses?
i'm sorry, no one told me that Audrey had been beatified. let us bow before the late, incarnation of the spririt of Tiffany before smiting the blasphemers for the tacky attempt at bringing the blessed one into a contemporary setting. Audrey, Mohammad, is there anyone else we're not allowed to display - I just can't keep up with it all?
one of the marvelous things about the ad is that it's so eye catching that you don't have to recognize her (thereby crossing generations). For those who recognize her or the scene, it's even more enticing (as demonstrated by the visceral response here).
So, to sum up, what people don't like are:
1. it spoils their memory of Audrey
2. Audrey wouldn't approve (some unidentified psychic connectio perhaps?)
3. Adurey would never be associated with something soooo plebian
3. the music sucks
4. they can't fit into skinny black pants
It seems like a pretty effective ad to me. You like it or hate it but you don't forget it.
Agree that the use of AC/DC track is pretty no-brainer, and contrasting it with Hepburn is, I don't know, ridiculous at best. Seems like an in-house effort if you ask me. Not that an agency couldn't screw it all up just as well, but it just has that "hey! I got an idea! AC/DC! What's that song about 'black' they did!?" and then the dancing footage is a similar, "Hey...you know what rented this weekend!? Anyway, yeah, she's wearing black pants!!"
Is it any surprise you fatsos don't like skinny black pants?
I have the pants in two colors, I love them, and I'm going to stock up, because I love to dress like it's 1959. That said, the commercial is totally annoying. But at least Gap didn't have Jennifer Love Hewitt to do her Audrey impression and dance to a Killers song or something. I hate commercials. Ugh.
Not much on my mind these days, but what can I say? It's not important. I just don't have much to say lately. I've just been letting everything pass me by recently, but eh.
I haven't been up to anything these days. So it goes. I can't be bothered with anything these days.