| J.C. Penney Mocked In Fake Ad, Ad Agency Blamed |
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The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 12:16 PM
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J.C. Penney Co. execs are blaming the company's ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, for a fake ad that debuted at Cannes and is now on YouTube in which the retailer appears to be endorsing teen sex.
The purported ad 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. The video, called "Speed Dressing," ends with the teens heading down to the basement as the words "Today's the day to get away with it" flash on the screen, echoing Penney's use of the phrase "Today's the day to..." in a series of ads it launched last year. Penney's logo and "Every Day Matters" slogan then appear on the screen.
In a statement late Monday, Saatchi execs 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 (at Cannes) 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. The video may have been filmed after hours by a producer at Epoch who was working on the Penney ads for Saatchi. When asked if the retailer was reconsidering its partnership with Saatchi, J.C. Penney CMO Mike Boylson said he was having a "serious discussion" with the firm, but said "our relationship with them is beyond the scope of this one incident."
Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal.
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