"Ropa Vieja"

9 May 2025

30s

The swagger of saving.

The first work for J C Penney from Mischief @ No Fixed Address hit US screens a few weeks ago and it is a case study in advertising brilliance. The brand is among those that has not had the easiest time as consumers have shifted their spending from physical shops to online, and pushing back is not going to be easy, but advertising like this - simply but exquisitely executed by RiffRaff's Humans - provides them with a fighting chance.

This ad, and the other that was aired at the same time, manages to reposition cheapness as an aspiration. In an era where authenticity has been claimed by many brands as a marketing tool, meaning that often the most important part of their product is the label, it is brazen to adopt an approach that turns this idea of its head. Ironically, J C Penney can get away with this because they themselves are an authentic brand. And that's why this seems very likely to work.

USA

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