Show Time for the Shorts Sports - Brief Article

Joe Boxer, having carved a high-profile presence out of zany but cost-effective stunts such as launching its skivvies into space or selling them out of vending machines, will invest $5-7 million over the next year in the first advertising campaign in the brand's 13-year history. The aim: to bolster a 70% consumer awareness level, while leveraging the broader offerings of its women's products and Clean Fresh Underwear basic whites line to position JB as a staple clothing brand, not just a line of novelty boxers.

1st Joe Boxer Campaign: 'Rockwell on Acid'

Joe Boxer chairman Nicholas Graham described the campaign as "Norman Rockwell on acid." Print spreads by new agency Odiorne, Wilde, Narraway & Partners, San Francisco, depict everyday life situations that are a little off--starting with the fact that everyone is wearing only underwear. In one, mother and child wait on the lawn as a fireman dressed in a hat, boots and red boxers "rescues" the boy's shorts from a tree. In another, "Counting on friends," an African American man with a large Afro and broken leg hobbles on crutches, flanked by a white couple toting his giant boomboxes. Headlines run as LED-type readouts with time and date, to appear as if an amateur photographer just happened upon the scene. Tag is "Change Daily," meant to reinforce JB's everyday appeal.

"People know us for the novelty stuff," said Luanne Calvert, marketing director, "but the bulk of what we sell is basics." Still, she acknowledged fourth quarter as a crucial time to hit, as those novelty sales kick in for holiday gift-giving.

Ads break in November issues of 13 consumer magazines, including Spin, Wallpaper, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Out and GQ. The campaign runs three months, then gets a rest until second quarter 1999, when new creative will kick in. Outdoor in eight metros will be wired with radio transmitters that let commuters tune into a special JB station within a two-mile radius to hear Graham comically weave his message into such formats as talk radio, classical, country and religious programming, sounding as if the radio were in scan mode.

TV had once been considered for fall, and JB is still mulling the idea, but that could mean alternatives to straight-up ad buys, such as sponsoring comedy programming, per the brand's platform of humor, Graham said.

With its high profile guerrilla marketing, one JB exec speculated that the public doesn't even notice the brand hasn't advertised much. "We always do a lot of camp," Graham said. "Now we've just added the 'pain.'"

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