retail

Carhartt 'Hands' Out Industrial-strength' Campaign

Carhartt

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carhartt is unleashing its own version of blue-collar chic, running the biggest ad campaign in its 122-year-history.

The Dearborn, Mich.-based clothing company relies on machine-shop machismo with “Hands,” a TV spot that’s meant “to lift up working people,” Tony Ambroza, Carhartt's VP/Marketing, tells Marketing Daily. “We aren’t going to ignore the fact that it’s a tough time for people who live off their ability to work with their hands. Our research kept turning up, over and over, how resilient these people are, and how industrious.”

In fact, he adds, “many of our customers say they don’t just work with their hands, they think with their hands. These ads respect that.”

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The "Hands" spot, created by Team Detroit, is airing on CMT, Discovery, ESPN and the History Channel, and scheduled to run through Dec. 18.

While most of the hands in the ad are beefy and performing manly tasks with crowbars and chainsaws, there are some hard-working female hands, too. And, Ambroza says, the company is continuing its support of the women’s line, launched several years ago, with a dedicated print campaign.

Ambroza adds that the brand isn’t just for hard-working urban types. “It’s really well known in the mountain states and Alaska, for example, and because it is such a strong outdoor brand, it’s warm and weatherproof, and in natural colors, it’s big with people who love the outdoors. In fact, in our Nashville focus groups, people told us they consider the pants snakeproof. And it also has strong appeal for many white-collar people who grew up in a blue-collar home.”

 

 

 

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