Sometimes juvenile humour is the key to consumer’s hearts- as shown by this ad for US retailer Kmart, getting tens of millions of viewers within weeks with an ad that repeats the phrase “Ship My Pants”… to promote its delivery service obviously.
Featuring a series of shoppers exclaiming “Ship My Pants” to promote Kmart’s Shop Your Way rewards program and its ship to store free shipping feature. (Update: the feature lets shoppers ship items unavailable in stores to their homes).
It’s a tongue-twisting foray into juvenile humor — go ahead and say “ship my pants” aloud, but it may not be safe for work — and one being called cheeky and hilarious.
“Ship my pants? Right here?” asks one stunned shopper. “I just shipped my pants, and it’s very convenient,” says another, elderly customer. Others ship their drawers, a nightie and even a bed. Sophomoric, perhaps, but clever enough to catch the attention of the Today show, which devoted a segment to the ad on Friday April 12.
The “Ship My Pants” extended poop joke was such a hit—it quickly became one of the most-shared ads ever—it was probably inevitably that Kmart would follow up with another attempt at silly tongue-in-cheek humour.
Now, the all-purpose discount retailer appears to have struck goofy gold yet again, with an online ad promoting Kmart’s “big gas savings.”
This time, the ad promotes a 30¢ off per gallon gas deal at participating gas stations for customers who spend at least $50 at Kmart. The deal almost seems besides the point, however. The main point of the ad is to make people laugh … and think about Kmart more.
“Sounds like you could use some big gas savings,” one woman says to another—who happens to be the mom featured in “Ship My Pants”—as they’re filling up at a gas station. “Thirty cents a gallon, that’s a big gas discount,” a bearded man says. “Dad, look at that big gas truck,” a boy (also from “Ship My Pants”) says, pointing to a gas tanker. And on and on.
“Most brands are hopeful their videos go viral,” said Shannelle Armstrong-Fowler, spokeswoman for Kmart and Sears Holdings. “The humour was irreverent and were pleasantly surprised. Real humor is as funny as you can be, without being offensive.”
The ad has since attracted over 20 million YouTube views (Nov 2013).
View the follow up, ‘Big Gas Savings’ below:
