Ship My Pants! Is Kmart Being Smart?

A little blue humor and the blue light special

Original photo by DoppioM via Flickr

I remember being in a Kmart a hazy handful of times in the ’70s seeing a blue siren flash after an announcement over Kmart’s intercom. It was exciting, and an obvious gimmick to get some quick attention while having a little fun.

Something similar is happening now with Kmart’s latest ad campaign, dubbed “Ship My Pants.” Highlighting the retailer’s offering of in-store shipping, excited customers riff about shipping their pants, drawers, a bed, and… you get the idea.

I love some wacky wordplay, so I’m naturally a fan of the ad. I don’t know that I’ll be shopping at Kmart any more because of it, but I’ll definitely be smirking the next time it happens, or maybe even the next time I drive by a store.

It reminds me of the “Make 7up Yours” campaign from the ’90s…

I noted the similarity to Kmart through Twitter, and they acknowledge the connection.

@rsmithing Same idea! Thanks for the compliment #ShipMyPants

— Kmart (@Kmart) April 20, 2013

My take away is that, although this might be a bawdy approach, it gets us talking (blogging) about the brand when there was absolutely no chatter before. In the case of Old Spice, this did get me interested in the product, and it will be interesting to follow Kmart’s business as consumers start to, um.. ship their pants.

What do you think? Can you recall a similar campaign? Would this make you more or less likely to shop at a Kmart or similar advertiser? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• Kmart’s ‘ship my pants’ ad causes shockwaves and smiles (usatoday.com)


• Kmart’s Hilarious New Ad Will Make You Ship Your Pants (dailyfinance.com)


• Lessons for Communicators From Kmart’s Wildly Successful “Ship My Pants” Viral Video (prnewsonline.com)


• How Kmart Used Social Listening (And Some Nerve) To Create A Ship-My-Pants Funny Viral Hit (fastcocreate.com)

Focus

Distractions are a distracting factor;

Procrastination delays the matter…

Does it matter? Get there faster?

More to-do we’re chasing after.

(laughter)

A quick photomontage of a candle I shot along with a macro view of my eye. For a full-size look at this and others like it, check out the Photomontage set at my Flickr gallery.

Musical accompaniment for this post: Incubus – Made for TV Movie

Related articles

• The Power of Structured Procrastination (txcreativep1.wordpress.com)


• Why and How To Overcome Procrastination (healthylifestyleplus.com)


• 10 Shortcuts To Defeating Writing Procrastination In Record Time (kristinnador.wordpress.com)


• Procrastinators of the world unite….. Tomorrow? (pantsontheoutside.wordpress.com)


• Determine to do as much good as you can, for as many as you can, as often as you can, for as long as you can (knuthblog.wordpress.com)


• The Complete Guide To Procrastinating At Work (lifehacker.com.au)

Evernote, Three Months In

At the beginning of this year I made it a point to get in the habit of using Evernote. I’ve kept reading its praises and since I’m in the world of collecting ideas for future blog posts, it made enough sense to give it a try.

I should say that I’ve previously relied on emailing myself ideas, links, images and other content, filing them away under “read later” or “ideas” in Gmail. This has kinda worked, but I don’t really find myself going through that content often. The idea of a standalone app dedicated to capturing ideas and organizing them at least makes sense to me for that reason. I get the concept, but it’s still taking work to make myself use the program.

Part of the adoption curve for me is having content actually in Evernote. Without many notes to search, there’s not much to draw from, so I can see how some users may get turned off if, say, within a week or two they aren’t reaping tremendous benefit.

But so far for me, it’s been at least good for peace of mind, knowing that all the stuff I’d otherwise be emailing myself is now tagged and easily referenced. In fact, it was the process of going through my notes in Evernote that led to this blog post, so hey… there’s something! I’m interested enough to keep using it, and I’m surely only scratching the surface, given the capabilities some of its power users explore. There will be more to come on this for sure.

What do you think? Do you use Evernote or a similar service? What’s your process for capturing ideas, to-dos or things go investigate later? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• The Ultimate Evernote Guide, Part 1: Getting Started with Evernote (teleread.com)


• Evernote-branded device coming. Wait, what? (bizjournals.com)


• Evernote Promises Its Own ‘New, Magical’ Hardware Gadgets Are Coming (embargozone.com)


• Evernote is my Everything (raventools.com)


• Three Third Party Evernote Apps for iOS (centralisious.com)


• Why You Should Be Using Evernote As Your Go-To Place For Remembering Everything (TimeManagementMagazine.com)