Barbara Lippert's Critique

I like Kmart's new tagline, "The stuff of life." Even though it's been overused lately in advertising, the word "stuff" is friendly and earthy, has a funny sound and rolls right off the tongue—unlike, say, "consumer durables." What's more, the phrase cleverly echoes "the staff of life," a reference to bread. And Kmart could use plenty of that. The 2,114-store discount-retail chain filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 22, the largest such filing by a retailer in U.S. history. Saving the company while it reorganizes under Chapter 11 is way too big a burden for advertising alone to bear. Yet great new ads could energize the Street and the celebrated Kmart shopper, from those with a serious Martha Stewart house wares dependency to fans of the "figure-flattering" stylin's of the Jaclyn Smith collection. Whatever its other prob lems, Kmart has desper ately needed a strong brand positioning. Wal-Mart has effi ciency and low price. Target has a slick, hip, cheap-chic aesthetic, translated into trendy merchandise and breakthrough, pop-artsy advertising that hits the bull's-eye. (Everybody loves a bargain, but no one wants to feel poor.) But the red K is working on it. "Culminating 18 months of consumer research," a release says, "Kmart's new corporate brand positioning focuses on establishing Kmart as 'The Store That Understands What Really Matters in Life' " (if not "The Store That Understands Capitalization Rules"). What Really Matters, it turns out, are basics like "putting family first, value for money and practicality." So far, so good. It also seemed like genius to hire Spike Lee as director. He has a spontaneous charm on camera and a refreshing directness about selling. (He developed his own, now-defunct retail line after hawking T-shirts in front of theaters showing his first feature, She's Gotta Have It.) Unfortunately, this campaign has none of the single-minded passion of She's Gotta Have It and much more of the muted dullness of a committee-reviewed Do the Right Suburban Thing. The only amusing clip in the whole campaign is a shot of a dryer jumping with a box of Bounce on top it. That's about it for unexpected visual excitement. Other wise, we get three 30-second spots chockablock with scenes from suburban life—a man standing in an odd corner of a living room with a baby in a Snugli and a kid by his side; children playing videogames; a man in his boxers getting the morning (we hope) paper. The cast is effortlessly diverse, and it's nice to acknowledge that family life is messy and imperfect (clothing and towels are strewn on a bathroom floor in one cut). But it's not as though many ads—for life insurance, vitamins, laxatives—haven't been there before. What's more, these spots seem oddly passive and blank. Such low-key down-homeyness might have set a new tone for the stores two years ago, but it's not what's needed now. In the 30-second composite spots (the 15-second ones present a single image, and are better), actors spout lines like, "Is there such a thing as laundry elbow?" That's the real knee-slapper of the bunch. Other inargu able statements include, "Socks and underwear should be sold by the pound" and "A dollar should stretch; so should pants." One woman says, "Make peace with dust bunnies." That's the sort of thing Erma Bom beck got famous for saying when she demystified suburban life in the 1970s. But hiring Spike Lee to channel the wit and wisdom of Erma Bom beck is deeply puzzling. Lee does have an affinity for children, and the only ad with any real verve is a 15-second spot for Kmart's Disney stuff in which kids talk about their favorite movies. It feels spontaneous, and the kids are so cute. No doubt the future is in the 15-second spots for specific brands. Otherwise, the question becomes less Spike Lee and more Peggy Lee: "Is that all there is, and stuff?"

Brand Marketing

Barbara Lippert's Critique

Barbara Lippert

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Barbara Lippert