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Things that are working for the Gap right now: not much. After a year of weirdness where they dabbled in terrible logo redesign, fired Patrick Robinson from its helm, launched a weird bid for your clothes website, and decided to opt for a more European-driven approach to its American retail operations, the company has decided to take a new tactic with its advertising—showing the customer around behind-the-scenes at its design headquarters, you know, where they make all those white shirts and khakis. Check out the sneak peek of the fall campaign, above. WWD reports that the campaign will feature a personalized video component:
Working with ad firm Ogilvy & Mather and culture and design Web site Cool Hunting, Gap created 30 short videos, each 20 to 90 seconds long. Some profile key members of the L.A. denim team, including women’s merchant Masako Konishi, men’s merchant Cale Margol and wash specialist Rob Crews. Each reveals a little bit about themselves, like men’s design director Jason Ferro mentioning how his background as a rebel skater, surfer and musician influences his work.Will this make the Gap cooler and more relevant? We're not sure about logic behind firing the biggest personality/name on the design roster and then trying to create a personality-driven campaign. Let's see how this all unfolds, shall we.
· Gap ads go behind the scenes [WWD]