• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, Yesterday

In the backpack business, back-to-school season is everything. And JanSport’s new campaign bets that humor is the way to extend its Gen Z-winning streak.

Themed “Always with you,” the playful ads turn backpacks into singing puppets, belting out emotional ballads with deliberately bad voices. The bags spill the truth about everything from killing bugs to overpacking and messy cars.

Created with agency Party Land, the work builds on last year’s successful formula: absurd humor, perfectly imperfect music, relatable chaos, and unfiltered inner monologues. This time, the bags take center stage.

“The bags aren’t just part of the story — they really are the story,” says Alexandra Reveles, vice president of global brand at JanSport, owned by the Denver-based VF Corp. “We learned that humor sticks, and when we let the brand show up, quirky and genuine, it really clicks.”

Reveles says the goal was finding the right amount of weird, building on last year’s success while bringing fresh, TikTok-worthy energy. “There’s a certain amount of ‘can you top this’ pressure,” she says. Last year’s effort drove a 385% year-over-year increase in engagement and led to JanSport’s highest-grossing month in 57 years.

Because the campaign is TikTok-led, she says the team is also looking at engagement differently. Shares, clicks, and watch times are still part of the picture. “But there is a cultural conversation piece that is an element of more modern marketing campaigns on the TikTok platform. How is it shared and talked about? It’s looking more into the conversations that these kind of campaigns provoke.”

Early sales signals are strong. And while back-to-school shopping is already underway, JanSport is gearing up for its busiest stretch. “The last two weeks of July and first two weeks of August are kind of our Super Bowl,” she tells Marketing Daily.

In a sea of back-to-school noise, JanSport is betting weird works.