Kyle Schimmel/Tommy Chicago

The idea we talked about in class is the one I am going to go with: "Tommy Chicago". Basically, I see real Tommy Bahama as the tropical fantasy of the average middle-age man. For the Tommy Chicago Spoof, I see the everyman reaching out for something exotic, but still obviously trapped in his mundane Chicago existance. Here are some adorable TB shots:




At the flagship store here on Michigan Avenue, the windows are covered in ads of middle aged men with young women on beaches, drinking out of little rocks glasses. In my spoof ads, which will also have to be photos, I want to show less-than-fabulous people attempting to get tropical- sports fans sitting at the bar drinking obscenely tropical drinks, people waiting at a bus stop in hawaiian shirts with stupid rocks glasses, unfit old guy laying out on the rocky beach in the cold.



Idea #2 is the concept of advertising for something that sells itself- I thought the 'got milk?' ads were so silly because they are not advertising a brand, but really a general commodity. Sort of like the cotton commercials! Everyone who sees these ads is already aware of, and consuming, whatever they're advertising, so it just seems laughably unneccessary to me. A spin on this would be like advertising coffee (in general) or gasoline (in general).

Seriously? The companies that sell the commodity are going to band together so that people start buying more in general? Maybe I'm alone in seeing the muddled utility in these ads.