Closet Shelving is A Fashion Statement, Dammit!

california_closets.jpg

For years. we've seen the very utilitarian ads for that closet shelf company, California Closets. That utilitarian approach always seemed appropriate since closet shelving is, well, utilitarian. It seems someone over at California Closets got bored just showing pictures of their shelving in ads which were usually placed unceremoniously in the back of many newspaper's Sunday magazine. A frustrated California Closets marketing person apparently stood up and said, "Dammit, we want some far forward right hand page action!" to which the Sunday magazines replied, "Dammit, we don't want any crappy utilitarian closet shelving ads ruining the front of our preciously wannabe culturistically fashionista-like magazine pages" to which California Closets screamed,"Dammit, we need to get ourselves some hip, vapid looking, ridiculously dressed models and drape them across the ad and, like, just kinda show our shelving in the background" to which the Sunday magazines said, "Cool, we'll take your money now for this ad we know people are gonna look at and go 'what the fuck are they selling here?'" To which we say, well, we've said enough.

Written by Steve Hall    Comments (10)     File: Creative Commentary, Magazine, Newspaper, Strange     Aug-21-06  
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Comments

Strange that such an uberhip couple sport wedding bands, but their simplified life did not extend to their clothing, which seems rather cumbersome and difficult.

Posted by: Jetpacks on August 21, 2006 12:56 PM

This is a lovely ad.Well done

Posted by: chales salem on August 21, 2006 02:32 PM

Why is the guy in the white suit holding his dick?
Cheers/George

Posted by: George Parker on August 21, 2006 06:02 PM

I think the ad just sells the product by putting in the spotlight upfront a close up shot of a "closet" case. Duh! C'mon, a guy so perfectly groomed and haute-couturishly dressed up to the nine's like that, just lying in bed and without even attempting to put a hand on the hot girl...? Hello...!!!

Posted by: Cristian Cravello on August 21, 2006 06:12 PM

My hat is off to California Closet Company for 3 main reasons:

1. The ever-so-boring picture of wood and knobs, seen repeatedly over the 10+ years is so fricken boring that no one pays attention anymore. Ads need to be updated frequently or else consumers are brainwashed into scanning directly over the ads.
2. The bold contrast between the “old look” and the “new look” will have most intelligent people scratching their heads to see what’s up.
3. Sex sells, and whether you like it or not … it draws both male and female viewers into admiring the models bold and assuming positions and forces consumers to find out what they are selling.

Posted by: Leslie Linevsky on August 21, 2006 11:16 PM

Uber-rediculous.

Posted by: Joe Radio on August 22, 2006 12:59 PM

First, I love the rant. Made me laugh!

Second, the ad reminds me of those times my sister volunteered to watch the kids and my husband and I got all dressed up to go out but we were stuck in the house saying, "So, what do you want to do?" "I don't know." "We could go downtown." "Nothin's happenin' down there." "The movies?" "Nothin's playin'." "We could go grocery shopping and stop at Blockbuster..." "Yeah, okay."

Posted by: Lori Barbeau [TypeKey Profile Page] on August 25, 2006 07:51 PM

These comments are perceptive. I am not sure about the guy holding his private parts though. But if the closet companies can't show a cluttered closet (the way real people live, why not make them sexy?

If the CC numbers go up, we'll be seeing more of these ads for sure.

http://www.organizingla.com/organizingla_blog/2006/10/would_hip_vapid.html

Posted by: John Trosko on October 27, 2006 04:24 PM

This is just one of a series of California Closets ads where the subject of the ad is as unclear as the models are androgenous. I think the message here is "we are virtually unchallenged in our dominance of the custom closet market and no longer need bother showing our product". The real mystery is why California Closets are so wildly popular, when they sell poor quality particle board components and flimsy wall hung shelves.

Posted by: blloyd on January 14, 2007 05:29 PM

Where's the closet?

Posted by: closet organizers guy on March 27, 2007 04:28 PM

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