• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, July 18, 2023

While many marketers focus on sweet-and-sincere imagery for back-to-school ads, Amazon is calling on comedian Randall Park to give parents a different message: Spend less on kids. Way less.

Its new back-to-school campaign features the “Fresh Off The Boat” star, a real-life dad who’s not even a little bit ashamed about wanting to spend as little as possible.

“We created this spot to add some much-needed humor to an exciting but stressful time for parents and caregivers,” says Jo Shoesmith, Amazon’s executive creative director, in an email to Marketing Daily. “Along with being a great actor, Randall Park is a parent, so he can appreciate how parents feel.”

The ads echo the just-shy-of-snarky tone Amazon used in last year’s campaign, which starred Kathryn Hahn. “That was also a comical take on how parents can spend less by shopping on Amazon, and our customers really related to this perspective,” Shoesmith says.

Steep inflation and other economic pressures make the message even more important this year, she adds.

The campaign highlights the ecommerce company’s back-to-school shopping guide, which steers parents to deals on the obvious, like clothing and tech, and the quirkier, including ballet shoes and glue-by-the-gallon.

The company says the ad will air on TV, online video, digital and social in 30-, 15- and 6-second versions.

Amazon’s in-house team created the campaign, with Jody (“The Righteous Gemstones”) Hill directing.

And as move-in day gets closer, the Seattle-based company is also rolling out “Dormz,” a new back-to-college effort starring NCAA Women’s Basketball champs Angel Reese, who wowed the world with her scoring skills and out-to-here eyelashes, and teammate/rapper Flau’Jae Johnson.

The two Louisiana State University superstars spoof the video-home tours genre as they share their dorm must-haves, which Amazon has made shoppable from their storefronts.

“Dormz,” also created in-house, is running through mid-August, using online video, digital and social.

The campaign comes on the heels of Amazon Prime Day, which the company says was its biggest yet. People bought 375 million items worldwide, saving more than $2.5 billion.

Some retail experts consider Amazon Prime Day the unofficial kick-off of the back-to-school shopping season and predict parents are shopping earlier than usual to save. Captify, the search intelligence provider, says it noted back-to-school searches for K-12 started to trend upwards following July 4 and expects it to peak the first week of August. Back-to-college interest is typically marked by a rush of search activity around early and late August move-in dates.

Among the most-searched: Backpacks, headphones and planners. For teens, searches for year-round favorites Nike, American Eagle and Lululemon are ramping up from mid-July and will likely continue to lead through most of August.