J.Crew Lets a Comedy Trio Run Its Suit Shop, and the Jokes Are Doing Real Work
Please Don't Destroy stars in J.Crew's new fall suiting campaign, playing three guys who are terrible at their jobs selling suits that are apparently excellent.
J.Crew built its fall suiting campaign, "We Take Suiting Seriously," around a premise that undercuts its own headline: comedy trio Please Don't Destroy, made up of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, play three new hires bumbling through their first day at the Suit Shop inside J.Crew's 19 Bond Street store, closing deals before noon with recommendations nobody asked for. Luke Gilford shot the companion stills in the Financial District, leaning on 1990s New York style with patterned ties and briefcases.
Julia Collier, J.Crew's chief marketing officer, says the brand has long helped people buy their first suit and wanted to add some personality to that rite of passage. The actual product gets a surprisingly serious pitch underneath the jokes: the Ludlow Slim Fit ("You should know my name"), the Crosby Classic Fit ("Good first impression"), and the Kenmare Relaxed Fit ("Just because") each get their own one-liner, built from mill fabrics the brand is happy to talk up once the comedians stop talking.
It is a reliable trick: let the talent make fun of the category, then let the product quietly be the straight man. J.Crew is betting that an audience who would scroll past another suiting campaign will stick around for Please Don't Destroy being bad at their jobs, and stay long enough to notice the tailoring is not a joke at all.
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Source: PR Newswire
Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →
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