Once upon a time, in a city far, far away, I worked on the Walmart account. At that time, Walmart had been running their Real People spots for over 20 years, and I was but one creative cog of many to be plugged into the machine over the years. As creatives, our goal was, naturally, to not come up with something new from a structural standpoint. Our job was to come up with something interesting. Which is why the first Walmart spot my partner Paul and I did featured an authentic Scottish ex-pat who wails some mean bagpipes. It was a Christmas spot.

About a year or so after I left the agency for browner pastures in Texas, Walmart decided to do the same. After much kerfuffle and shenanigans, the account went to The Martin Agency is lovely Richmond, Virginia. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I love Martin. If the only ads they ever produced were the Geico spots featuring pubescent racer Loren Wallace, I’d still love them. But even Martin had a tough slog cracking the Walmart nut. Not that any of their work for the Galactic Value Headquarters (Made in China) was bad, it just seemed to be work in search of brand that wasn’t actually Walmart. From the outside looking in, I can’t say if that was the fault of the agency or the client. Oh wait, sure I can. Client.

But now we have a new campaign, chock full of awesome, mini-sitcom goodness. Ostensibly, the spots focus on Walmart’s price-match guarantee. Why? You got me. Seems an odd strategy, to be honest. But the campaign wisely shuffles this foolishness to the end of the spots where such info can easily be swapped out for something else. Like Keyboard Cat.

The spots themselves vary in their quality from chuckle-inducing to rewind-worthy. Not a bad accomplishment given the sheer volume of spots Walmart likes to crank out. Of course, none of these spots actually makes me want to go to my local Walmart, because my nearest Walmart is dingy and full of inappropriate Spandex. The fact that I actually shot a spot there long ago is no consolation. What these spots do is make me want to go to a Walmart that doesn’t exist. Oh wait, that’s called Target.

Oh well. Maybe now that Walmart has their advertising in a good place they can focus on operations. Yeah. Anyway, take a look at this treasure trove:

Later,

Fox