Chandelier Creative is back with another spot for Old Navy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, this time casting the Veep and former Seinfeld star as a fashion designer.
In the role, Louis-Dreyfus dons a purple and silver wig, glasses and speaks with a heavy French accent. In other words, she plays a stereotypical fashion designer. After opening with a funny (and brutal) throwaway line, three of her models walk in wearing Old Navy. She asks them who made it and when they inform her that the frayed (or “distressed”) jeans are on sale at Old Navy she drops the accent and tells whispers that she’ll be back in twenty minutes.
While it lacks the punch of Chandelier’s back-to-school effort for the brand, “Happy Pants” is not without merit. The fashion designer character may be a cliche, but that’s kind of the point, and Louis-Dreyfus’ character dropping her fake accent to announce her run to Old Navy ties the “run to the store” ending to a punchline, making it less over the top than usual. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Chandelier and Old Navy released outtakes as they did with previous spots, which is too bad since those usually provide more laughs than the ads themselves.
Credits:
Client: Old Navy, San Francisco
CMO: Ivan Wicksteed
Director of Marketing: Liat Weingarten
Agency: Chandelier Creative, New York
Creative Directors: Richard Christiansen, Lena Kuffner
Managing Director: Sara Fisher
Production Company: Hungry Man, Inc., New York
Director: Wayne McClammy
Executive Producers: Kevin Byrne, Mino Jarjoura, Dan Duffy, Nancy Hacohen
Producer: Dave Bernstein
DP: Damian Acevedo
Production Designer: Laura Fox
Art Director: Charles Varga
Sound Mixer: Seth Gilbert
Post-Production:
Editorial: Final Cut, New York
Editor: Crispin Struthers
Executive Producer, Lauren Bleiweiss
PhotoBubble: Provided by The PhotoBubble Company:
Allan Wachs, Tom Iacino, Paxton Dronek