"Ship My Pants" Deconstructed
Questions answered in this #deconstruction blog post: 1) Who created the message? 2) What are the creative techniques that are used to attract attention? 3) How might different people interpret the message? 4) What viewpoints/world views are included (and conversely, who's left out of the conversation)? 5)Why is this message being sent- what is the goal of the message?
K-mart’s marketing team concocted this pun-filled advertisement in April 2013 in an effort to attract a larger, more “edgy” customer base to their online shopping, which at the time included free ship-to-home service. At the time it was released, Shannelle Armstrong-Fowler, a spokeswoman for Kmart issued the statement: “We're very excited about the video. We thought it was irreverent, funny humor.”
The “irreverent” humor used in the advertisement made sure that it would stand out from their competitors at the time, and they only released it on the internet, ensuring they would reach potential customers that were already using the computer. Because of the way the actors of various ages, ethnicities, and genders pronounced the word “ship” in various settings, they were almost guaranteed to go viral, which they did, helping them even reach customers that normally wouldn’t be watching advertisements. Whereas most internet ads you don’t want to see, this is the first time that I remember people going on YouTube actually LOOKING for the commercial.
The people left out of the conversation would probably be people who don’t like hearing swear words, such as religious conservatives, because admittedly, it DOES sound like the actors are saying something other than “ship”, which could be considered offensive to certain people. A quick internet search showed me that K-Mart had been performing poorly since around 2002, so it seems to me like they decided that they would gamble on trying to win over a large amount of potential consumers than appease this smaller group. It’s almost as if they saw they had nothing left to lose, so they weren’t worried about offending if it meant they could reach consumers who otherwise wouldn’t shop there.