Jet.com's advertising is so unabashedly, self-consciously silly, it's enough to make your head explode.
First there was R/GA's "mind-blowing" spot introducing the members-only shopping site to the public at large. Now, we're assailed by dozens of goofy web clips from SS+K.
Director Tom Scharpling, who produced the USA Network crime-comedy Monk, worked with comedy writer Steve Young and an improv troupe on Wednesday to film brief real-time ads based on the shopping-cart contents of Jet.com customers who agreed to participate. From nearly 400 submissions, the team selected about 50 they thought had comic potential. The resulting videos rolled out as soon as they were done, and are being promoted with paid support across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Instagram.
"R/GA's work effectively delivers on the promise that there's a new and better type of shopping experience out there," SS+K president Bradley Kay tells Adweek. "Our work picks up on that theme, puts the consumer at the center of the story, and aims to humanize the entire shopping experience."
Fair enough, though given the quick turnaround for the content—minutes, in some cases—and the random nature of customer purchases, it's no surprise that the results are a pretty mixed (shopping) bag.
A barbershop quartet appears in several of the clips, including the one below, where they harmonize about some dude's bike-related buys.
In the next video, a cart laden with body wash, paper napkins and cheddar cheese inspires … turtle humor, naturally.
Here, a fast-talkin' pig gets animated about a coffee maker. (Cut out the caffeine, Squealy!)
Below, we have perhaps the best yodeling celebration of consumer electronics ever.
This one is about kitty litter and scary masks, or something.
Don't like any of those? Well, there are about 45 more videos to choose from.
SS+K creative chief Bobby Hershfield describes the day-long orgy of video production as a whirlwind of fun and chaos. "We had an entire system in place: How the orders came in, were categorized and numbered, and how we would put a writer on it, develop it, shoot it, edit it, and then push it out there," he says. "And yet, a printer would crash or a paper jam would occur. Like, the last thing we would think of would be the thing that stressed us out the most."
CREDITS
Client: Jet.com
Project: "Jet Spree"
Chief Customer Officer: Liza Landsman
VP of Marketing: Sumaiya Balbale
VP Creative, Christina Antonopoulos
Agency: SS+K
Partner, President: Brad Kay
Partner, Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Hershfield
Creative Director, Copywriter: Armando Flores
Associate Creative Director: Kat Lam
Senior Copywriter: Madeline DiGangi
Senior Vice President, Director of Production: John Swartz
Executive Producer: Christopher McLallen
Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy: Kevin Skobac
Digital Strategist: Claudia Cukrov
Senior Account Executive: Keri Cook
Account Executive: Cammie Reilly
Copywriter (JetSpree): Steven Young
Copywriter (JetSpree): Lindsey Lanpher
Copywriter (JetSpree): Francesca Chabrier
Copywriter (JetSpree): Step Schultz
Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Director: Tom Scharpling
Executive Producer: Christa Skotland
Producer: Rob Hatch-Miller
Editorial: Arcade Edit
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Editor: Jeff Ferruzzo