SAN FRANCISCO Gymboree has launched a new national print campaign for its line of children's cotton clothing, with creative from The Hive Advertising.
The San Francisco shop created three different print ads showing baby animals with the words "Rejected: Not soft enough" stamped across photos of each. Copy reads, "To say we have high standards for soft may be an understatement."
Gymboree hired the Hive in 2004, and the independent shop aims to talk to parents adult-to-adult in its work, the principals said.
"If you look at the advertising landscape of children's products, 99 percent of it seems to be speaking in baby talk," said Hive creative director David Knox. "We wanted to create a campaign for Gymboree and SuperSoft Cotton that bucked that trend and spoke to parents as adults and with an irreverent sense of humor."
The ads will appear in the September and November issues of Child, Parents and Parenting magazines. Billings are undisclosed.
The Gymboree Corporation, based in San Francisco, operates brands including Gymboree Play & Music, Gymboree retail stores, Janie and Jack shops for baby clothes and women's clothier Janeville. The company has more than 600 stores nationwide.
"In the Hive, we found an agency partner whose work was also unique and high quality, yet fun and humorous," said Gymboree CEO Lisa Harper. "They're a perfect complement to our brand. "