Kmart “Ship My Pants” Ad: Childish Humor Brings Grown-Up Results

Some have called it childish, immature, and even vulgar.  The rest of the online world calls it over 11 million views on YouTube and one of the more successful and hilarious viral video campaigns to occur in this generation.  Kmart’s most recent ad, “Ship My Pants” is focused around a play on words where “ship” sounds like a much more inappropriate word.  It’s a quick paced ad about Kmart’s online free shipping with some childish sleight of mouth that is guaranteed to make any 12 year old boy crack up.

                

But the thing is that this ad didn't just hit the funny bone of middle school students.  It has lit up the social media world, taking off from its reveal on April 10^th to spiral into a massive viral campaign.  It has been shared over 18,000 times on Facebook and has received over 53,000 “likes” on the YouTube video (as compared to the 2,000+ “dislikes”).  Articles on the controversial ad have appeared CNN, ABC, and USA Today among many other well-read sites.  Immature humor or not, the fact is this ad got people laughing and, more importantly, got people talking.

                

Kmart took a big risk by doing such an out-of-character ad.  No matter how funny or clever, an ad that breaches the accepted image of a company can have a serious negative impact.  A 30 second dirty word joke is quite a step out of the family friendly style that Kmart has been known for, and they have certainly lost some fans from it.  However, the good greatly outweighs the bad here.  The risk certainly paid off, showing two things: that sometimes taking that leap towards edgy and controversial can be exactly the right move, and that one should never underestimate the simplicity and strength of a bathroom humor joke.