Petit Bateau Captures the Essence of Childhood

I came across this ad while walking to work earlier this week. It instantly struck me, bringing me back to my childhood. Back then, we used to laugh about how the lollipops turned our tongues different colors. Now that I'm grown up, the colored tongue is more of a guilty badge, telling people you gave into temptation and ate the candy. It made me reminisce about my childhood and instantly put a smile on my face. 

Petit Bateau is a long trusted French brand, best known for its underwear and children's clothing. This year they are celebrating their 120 year anniversary (although they would tell you its 1,440 months) and looking to reinvigorate and freshen the brand. The teamed up with Kitsumé to bring a new line of women's and men's clothing which will be part of the Fall 2013 line.

This ad is captioned "Never old forever." I like this caption and advertisement as a way to preview the Fall 2013 line in the minds of consumers. Petit Bateau is planting the idea that their clothing will bring out the youth in their consumers. I also like the execution of this ad. I imagine the strategy was something like, "our clothes bring out the youth, childlike fun in our consumers." I picture the creative team sitting around coming up with an idea. I like their idea because they perfectly captured one of the fun things about being a child in a way that is not overdone or stereotypical. I also appreciate how they are reinforcing their brand language and culture by giving the child's age in months instead of years. 

I connected with the ad this week because it reminded me of my own creative struggles. For my Branding Practicum class, my final project is to create a brand. I must develop the brand strategically, and then execute it my creating a logo, communications package and PR strategies with a partner. I am currently working on the advertising campaign. I've written the strategy and I am now waiting for some brilliant executional idea to come to me. I am hoping to come up with a simple idea like Petit Bateau's that will ring true for consumers and execute my strategy in a clear, non-styereotypical way. As my professor said in class this week, "It only takes 3 seconds to come up with a brilliant idea, the hard part is the time it takes to get to those 3 seconds." Hopefully I can come up with an idea soon!

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about Petit Beateau's advertising campaign.