• Ad Age, Thursday, February 26, 2009 10:45 AM

A new campaign for a tired Old Navy centers on a group of "SuperModelquins" -- a dozen somewhat-creepy-looking, multi-ethnic mannequins with giant grins -- including a young family, a divorced mom and a few singles, Natalie Zmuda reports. It breaks tonight.

The retailer hasn't posted positive sales results at stores open at least a year since March 2007. Last spring, Old Navy tried a high-fashion experiment that was quickly scrapped. Since then, it has retooled its target customer -- now 25- to 35-year-old females, predominantly moms -- and made management changes, including promoting Tom Wyatt to president.

Wyatt says that he aware that Crispin Porter & Bogusky's campaign, which documents the love lives and everyday interactions of the plastic figures, may strike some as odd. "It is a bit polarizing. Some of us loved it and some of us liked it. Some of us were confused," he says. "But if you look back at Old Navy at its best ... we were always a bit quirky and different."

Read the whole story at Ad Age »