Silverman Laughs at GAP Ads

Copyranter has been slamming GAP's use of celebrities in its ads, rightfully pointing out that this continued trend is not helping the retailer bounce back from lagging sales. (Never mind the failed RED campaign.)

But GAP recently used Sarah Silverman in a couple of ads. With a simple expression, Silverman turns the celebrity game on its ear. Can't find the actual ad, but this is the image used in one, which labels Silverman as "Comedian, Aspiring Supermodel." Click it for a better look. See another here.

If more of the celebrities used in these crappy GAP ads could do something besides the "Oops, you caught me in a candid moment, laughing and pretending not to be pretentious" pose, (Thank you, Forrest Whitaker & Steven Spielberg) or the "pensive and thoughtful regular person who wants to communicate to you" pose, GAP might get some mileage out of these ads. "Hey, Look! It's Chris Rock making a whacky face." I get it. He's a funny man. How about Chris Rock pretending to be a campy, super-70s fashion model? Or one of those hollow-cheeked skinny boys of the Dolce Gabbana variety? THAT would be funny.

I don't care that John Mayer wears the Sweater Vest, or that Lucy Liu wears the Little Black Sweater Dress, or that Liev Schreiber wears the Haberdashery Shirt. And judging from the pictures of these folks, they were pretty put out by having to come down to the studio to pose for GAP. At least Silverman had some fun on this shoot, giving the photographer a picture that simultaneously laughs at the vapid, heroine chic look of much of what passes for fashion photography while modeling the clothing admirably.

Granted, Silverman is a comedian and can get away with this, whereas Lucy Liu's publicist probably won't let her ham it up in this sort of fashion parody. Maybe GAP should stick to comedians.

GAP is in trouble, and throwing money at big celebrities isn't helping them. At least Silverman gave it a twist.