Walgreens spots hit the mark again
LEWIS LAZARE llazare@suntimes.com
One of Walgreens' entertaining ads features a talking moosehead.
What would the holidays be without a few surprises. And that's often what we've gotten at this time of year from Walgreens and its agency of record, Downtown Partners/Chicago. Who, after all, could forget an earlier Walgreens holiday effort featuring a snowman making his way around a Walgreens store as he melted. But not to worry. A dutiful Walgreens employee was mopping up after him.
This season, Downtown Partners has opted for more of a musical stage show approach. Very upbeat with lots of movement and wit in the writing -- a trademark of the Downtown Partners operation, where ad copy is always an important part of ad making's art and craft. The theme of the Walgreens holiday campaign that debuts this week is "Stay Jolly." What could be more fitting when unemployment numbers are still high, and anxiety levels haven't decreased as much as many might have hoped they would.
Each of the new 30-second spots features a young woman briskly moving along in front of various shifting holiday-themed tableau that relate to the gifts she's giving this season -- all of which can be found at Walgreens.
Each of the two starring shoppers offers up her gifting commentary via a bouncy original musical composition from Mutato Muzika, a Los Angeles-based music house. The singing shoppers get surprise assists from two supporting characters: One is a man wearing earphones, and the second -- and funnier of the two -- is a talking moose head that is terribly concerned he may have been left off the lady's gift shopping list.
We wouldn't want to mislead you by suggesting these two Walgreens commercials are little musical productions designed only to entertain. Just about every retailer is hitting hard on deals to attract nervous holiday shoppers, and Walgreens is no exception.
In between all the vocalizing and shifting sets, the commercials do take time to explain that Walgreens is offering shoppers $5 in something called "super jingle cash" for every $25 they spend. And as one of the supporting characters points out, that jingle cash is good for anything in the store. Such a deal is likely to make a lot of people feel very jolly indeed this holiday season.
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