Possumblog

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

REDIRECT ALERT! (Scroll down past this mess if you're trying to read an archived post. Thanks. No, really, thanks.)

Due to my inability to control my temper and complacently accept continued silliness with not-quite-as-reliable-as-it-ought-to-be Blogger/Blogspot, your beloved Possumblog will now waddle across the Information Dirt Road and park its prehensile tail at http://possumblog.mu.nu.

This site will remain in place as a backup in case Munuvia gets hit by a bus or something, but I don't think they have as much trouble with this as some places do. ::cough::blogspot::cough:: So click here and adjust your links. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's one of those things.


Monday, October 27, 2003

It's In The K!!

AdAge's Bob Garfield with a dissection (if you can consider using a meat cleaver a dissection) of K-Mart's newest ad campaign.
Welcome to the latest installment of Survivor: Troy, Mich., as the new owners of the freshly solvent Kmart try to keep their company alive with a large dose of advertising.

Of course, Kmart's problems, historically, have had almost nothing to do with advertising and almost everything to do with not being able to compete with Wal-Mart. Let's just say that that condition is still critical. So this advertising isn't being introduced as a cure so much as for its narcotic value -- starting with a really upbeat R&B rendition of the new slogan: "Right here, right now!"

No kidding?! So what?! [...]

The message is that Kmart is no longer utterly devoid of fashion sense. This is communicated by the soulful sloganeering and video of extremely cool-looking New Yorkers grinningly outfitting their cool bodies and cool cribs with Kmart merchandise. So turned on are they by the Kmart experience that they spontaneously blurt out, "It's in the K!"

This is where the ads run into some little problems, much in the way Martha herself has run into some little problems. (By the way, is she saying "It's in the K?" or -- what it sounds like -- "in the cake?" Is she speaking of surprisingly hip merchandise or a contraband metal file for sawing through iron bars?)

Anyway, the point is, what's "in the K" is still mainly one employee per hectare, a lot of downscale shoppers and lots of clothing produced in places where you need a shot in the arm not for stimulation but to ward off cholera. [...]
Ouch.

Probably not worth pointing out that in baseball they use Ks for strikeouts.

But, we still shop there some--it's always nice and quiet, and occasionally you can find something there cheaper than you can at Wal-Mart. You would think, though, that with so few customers and so many employees wandering around, that it would be just a little bit cleaner.


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