• by Sarah Mahoney , Yesterday

JCPenney is taking its reinvention to the next level this fall, betting that the combination of laughs and live sports can shift long-stale perceptions of the century-old retailer.

The Plano, Texas-based company is rolling out the latest season of “Really Big Deals,” its weekly program of limited-time offers, with a fresh twist: rising stand-up comics. Each Thursday night during Amazon’s broadcast of “Thursday Night Football,” JCPenney will debut a new spot featuring an emerging comedian riffing on everyday household items—from towels to jewelry to apparel—before unveiling that week’s deal.

For Marisa Thalberg, executive vice president and CMO of Catalyst Brands, the approach marks a deliberate move to put humor and humanity at the center of the brand’s comeback. “We want to help people go from 'JCPenney?’ to 'Yes, JCPenney’ with almost a defiant confidence,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a sign of confidence when you’re willing to be a little bit light-hearted with what you do.”

Rather than relying on a single celebrity spokesperson, the campaign opens its stage to a rotating lineup of comedians of different ages, ethnicities and styles. The sets were filmed in a store designed to resemble a comedy club, complete with Shaquille O’Neal, a longtime JCPenney partner, acting as host. “I love the idea that we’re an underdog brand,” Thalberg tells Marketing Daily. “Let’s give our platform to others who are making it.”

Carl Byrd, the company’s vice president of creative, says the decision to produce 13 unique comedy spots instead of one big anthem wasn’t easy. “When Marisa first said, ‘What if you do a different one every week?,’ I had to think about it for a second,” he recalls. “But then it was like—yes. It was a giant challenge, but we’re really into doing things we haven’t done before and surprising our customers.”

That means tighter collaboration than usual. From a set built right inside a store, comedians were encouraged to workshop material with JCPenney’s creative team instead of reading scripted lines. “We wanted it to be coming from a human truth, a common insight into these everyday things we can all relate to,” Byrd says. “That’s what makes it funny, and that’s what makes people think, ‘Oh, JCPenney gets me.’”

One of the comedians, Von Daniel, is even a former JCPenney associate.

The choice of football as the media stage is strategic. Live sports remain one of the few places that brands can reliably capture large, engaged audiences. “It’s an opportunity to aggregate a big, mass live audience,” Thalberg says. “Especially with Thursday night football, the timing is perfect for a weekend deal.”

Past iterations of Really Big Deals have proven that shoppers respond. In a "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" drop earlier this year, JCPenney sold 1 million towels in a single weekend, and saw triple-digit gains in categories like dresses and jewelry. This season, the company is measuring success both in traffic spikes and in how the campaign contributes to broader brand relevance.

And while towels and comedy clubs take the spotlight on Thursday nights, JCPenney is also leaning into glitz. This week, it introduced an exclusive Bob Mackie collection, bringing Hollywood-level sparkle to stores at accessible prices. Mackie, famous for decades of designing clothes for Cher, is suddenly back in the fashion mainstream, for designing Taylor Swift’s bombshell “Life of a Showgirl” costumes. And he showed up again on pop star Sabrina Carpenter at the recent VMA Awards.

“Every woman can be an icon,” Thalberg says, “whether she’s grabbing a sequined cocktail dress or a three-pack of bath towels. Those things actually cohabitate at JCPenney, and it’s that juxtaposition that makes us different.”