Posting daily at 1pm central about all kinds of things. One day it's dating, the next it's TV commercials. I hope you're entertained. Professional photos on SmugMug – https://benwilder.smugmug.com
I’m pretty sure how old I feel is directly proportional to the ration of how far I bend down vs. how high I lift my foot when I’m putting my shoes on. If I start looking for shoe horns, it’s over. I know I’m getting old, though. There are certain things that shouldn’t make me sore. Here’s an example.
What my body thinks I did this morning:
What I actually did this morning:
-Out of the Wilderness
Did anyone have “denim derby” on their 2025 bingo card? Jeans have been around for over 150 years (thanks Levi Strauss!) so it’s not like we’re talking about the race to the moon here in 2025. There are enough customers to go around for brands like Levi’s, American Eagle, and now Gap has entered the chat with a new commercial. Move over Beyoncé, step aside Sydney Sweeney, here’s girl group KATSEYE starring in the new Gap ad.
Denim is for everyone, that’s the sentiment behind the ad. You can have jeans. I can have jeans. That person over there can have jeans. Good, because everyone has jeans. I think I have some stuffed in the wardrobe closet of my camper, way in the back behind the pair of forest green pants I bought for a date I never went on. 🤪🤔🥴
All these brands trying to strike a chord with consumers. And now Cracker Barrel is jumping on the bandwagon, too???
OK, I did that design myself but Cracker Barrel would be smart to try doing one right thing this month. Remind us that you’re as old-fashioned as a pair of worn-in blue jeans. Or you could just, oh I don’t know, go back to your old logo that was perfectly fine. Millennials gotta do millennial things, I guess.
-Out of the Wilderness
I don’t watch baseball. But when I do, it’s the Little League World Series. A couple of things to talk about today. One, they have awesome Easton batting gloves, a pair I have for adult league softball. So basically I have the same awesome taste as middle school boys. Nice. And two, the play in the video below is pretty amazing on the defensive side. It starts with a wild pitch but then it gets amazing. I’ll try to break it down Jomboy Media style…
The Wild Pitch. It all starts with a pitch that gets past the catcher. Always a chance for the baserunner on first to steal second.
The Catcher’s No-Look Throw. This comes with oodles of practice. Spacial awareness and the catcher knowing someone will be covering second before he even throws the ball.
The Runner’s Mistake. This is a big one. The play-by-play announcer mentioned that he should’ve slid into second. Acceptable. The runner knew he was safe by a mile so he committed two mistakes: He ran slow, and still overran the base. Third mistake, he didn’t keep his eyes on the ball. In the video you can see that he turns his head to find the catcher as he arrives at second, not knowing the catcher had thrown the ball seconds earlier. The runner would’ve known the ball was in the air if he was watching the catcher as he stole second.
The Short Stop’s Nonchalant Trick. This was pretty awesome. The baserunner is paying attention to the short stop, so body language is huge here. If the SS is dramatic about the ball coming is way, preparing for the catch, this would tip off the runner. So he, possibly instinctually or a purposeful choice, plays it cool as the ball is coming his way. At the last moment, he snatches the ball out of the air and swipes around to tag the runner.
The Umpire’s POV. Taking his job so seriously, craning his neck to get the best view of the tag and the runner’s foot. Excellent work.
The Coach’s Consolation. The coach is backing up as the runner returns to the dugout. But then he sees his player getting upset so he changes course, coming in to console the young man. Great coaching in a tough moment.
I feel terrible for the baserunner who made a couple of mistakes and ultimately sucked the wind out of the team’s sales with that out. It wasn’t the third out of the inning but it’s the play that ended the game. A learning experience and my hope for that little man is that he never forgets how he felt in that moment and can use that as a landmark and a guide for the rest of his life.
-Out of the Wilderness
On the one hand, it’s probably best that Cracker Barrel didn’t change their name to African American Barrel (calm down, it’s a joke I didn’t make up), but on the other hand, they might have done something worse! In a misguided attempt to appeal to new customers, Cracker Barrel has changed their logo to something a 3rd grader could’ve thought up. No offense to 3rd graders. Have you seen it yet? Here’s the logo they’ve had since the 1970s and then the new logo…………. since 2025.
I don’t know what these marketing departments are smoking, but I’ll pass. Cracker Barrel is reportedly investing hundreds of millions of dollars to rebrand themselves, which includes the very simplified logo. Let’s do a poll…
It reminds me of a bad memory from when I lived in Nashville. I had picked up work delivering for Uber Eats and, well, there are some really funny stories, but one time I was bringing an order to downtown Nashville. The area is very crowded, streets are sometimes blocked, chaos basically, so I called the guy to find out exactly where to go near Broadway. He said something to the effect of this: “When you get close to Broadway, on the right side you’ll see our imprint.” I just about launched my phone out of the car. Imprint! You’ll see our imprint!? I was about to imprint his backside with my foot! Listen, don’t be a douche. That’s kind of a good rule for every day when we wake up; Get some breakfast, get dressed, and just generally don’t be a douchebag. It’s not hard, actually.
I’m going to make a guess the idea for the rebrand design came from a hip, informed Gen-Zer who never got their butt kicked in school. I think Cracker Barrel could’ve just dowsed a moose with ink and had him walk over a piece of paper. Whatever “imprint” it makes is the new design.
-Out of the Wilderness
Actually, Beyoncé had great jeans first; Her Levi’s ad came out almost a year before the American Eagle campaign starring Sydney Sweeney. Beyoncé also had great genes first; She is 16 years older than Sydney Sweeney. After all the hubbub about Sydney’s AE ad, and virtually no pushback about any Levi’s ads, I thought today’s post would be fitting (no pun intended). Here’s one of the Beyoncé ads in the Levi’s series…
The Levi’s ad campaign launched in September 2024, coinciding with Beyoncé’s country music album and a certain song called “Levii’s Jeans.” I guess it was clever enough, if not low hanging fruit, to use the song and the superstar for a Levi’s commercial. Certainly there’s nothing controversial happening in the commercials, beyond the idea that some reject her music being country music.
A year later American Eagle comes along and makes denim a hot topic again. For all the pushback against Sydney Sweeney, she actually never said she has good jeans (or genes)… the narrator said it. Of course, they’re using word play and it works because Sydney has good genes (at least on the outside) and she has good jeans (according to American Eagle). Levi’s could’ve said the same exact thing about Beyoncé but they didn’t think of it first. What strikes me as the biggest difference between the two ads is that the American Eagle ads illicit a response whether you like them, hate them, or don’t care either way. The Levi’s ads, no offense to them or Beyoncé, are boring. Nothing much to remember… Just another ad for another product with another star spokesperson.
But the truth is that both brands and both stars can coexist. One star’s success doesn’t steal from the other. There are more than enough customers to go around, too. Some people like Levi’s, others like American Eagle. But I think it’s safe to say that in a marketing campaign sense, American Eagle made a bigger mark than Levi’s did last year and it has nothing to do with the spokeswomen.
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 