JC Penney has struck a funny bone with men and women alike, with a video ad called “The Doghouse,” which tells the story of a man who purchases a dual bag vacuum for his wife. After receiving the vacuum, the wife leads her husband out to a field and into a doghouse, where he vanishes to an underworld filled with other men who bought their wives bad gifts. I normally have a very short attention span when it comes to online video; 15 to 30 seconds is my max. However, this ad is 4 ½ minutes and I actually watched the entire video.
Granted, I read about the video from an article on Wired.com entitled “Welcome to the Doghouse: J.C. Penney Goes Viral” so I knew who the advertiser was. The ad was tastefully produced and doesn’t reveal the advertiser’s message until the very end when the man learns he can get out of the doghouse by buying this wife diamonds from J.C. Penney.
I’m not the only person who enjoyed the ad. According to the Wired article, the video has been viewed over 1.7 million times, and has received 56 placements across 9 video sites; over 90 percent have been community driven. To further drive the video, JC Penney created a website, http://www.bewareofthedoghouse.com/ where you can virtually place someone in the Doghouse, see what life is like inside The Doghouse and learn how to get out of the Doghouse.
This is also one of the first advertisers to use the Facebook Connect applications, which allows uses to place their Facebook friends in the virtual Doghouse.
