JC Penney Features Same-Sex Couple in May Catalogue

ABCNews ^ | May 12, 2012

[Steelfish]

May 12, 2012 JC Penney Features Same-Sex Couple in May Catalogue

Fifteen years ago, when advertisers got wind that Ellen DeGeneres was going to “come out” on her popular sitcom show “Ellen,” some advertisers fled.

One of them was JC Penney. Flash forward to one of their newest clothing ads in the May catalog. It features a real-life same-sex couple. The photograph is of two models identified as Wendi and Maggie holding their two daughters. Both women appear be wearing wedding bands.

Quietly, gradually and largely without protest, advertising is starting to reflect new attitudes and new realities about who we are. “Our cultures change and I think the broader consumer and the spending power in the country has become more progressive,” Eric Bovim, CEO of the ad firm Gibraltar Associates said.

There are gay couples on prime-time television shows, and now gay couples are coming out of Madison Avenue’s closet, which, according to Bovim, gives way to a new target audience.

“I think companies that are successful in marketing nowadays are trying to appeal to a progressive customer,” Bovim said. “They understand that customers are looking for social values, community, visionary aspirations. These are things that they buy into.”

Another previously unseen group in advertisements that now is appearing more and more is interracial couples, reflecting the rising number of mixed-race marriages in the United States.

Advertisers are sending different subliminal messages.

[thethirddegree]

James Cash Penny was a Christian. He would never have allowed this in his advertising.

[Jeff Chandler]

I used to order a lot of clothes when they had online sales.

I used to buy my suits there when they had half off sales.

[GeronL]

They are now focused on things like “social values” instead of making money. No wonder they are in bad financial shape.

[icwhatudo]

Thanks for posting this.

Someone needs to tell JC Penny that heterosexuals have more kids as we don’t need to adopt to have them.

Will never shop there again. I clicked on their community relations page and found out they also work with the racist hispanic group La Raza.

[jocon307]

I don’t think this is too smart. One woman I know, who probably wouldn’t care about this, already complained to me about Penny’s “square deal” thingy. I guess it means no sales. She just volunteered this complaint to me.

Now, I have bought some stuff from Penny’s and I don’t know if I’d boycott them, they certainly wouldn’t notice if I did.

But it seems they are going out of their way to alienate people. And let’s face it, those homemakers of middle America are NOT going to be replaced by FABULOUS gays, not at JC Penny’s they’re not.

[Colonel_Flagg]

“They understand that customers are looking for social values, community, visionary aspirations. These are things that they buy into.”

I'm looking for a good deal on men's wear. Not perversion.

[QT3.14]

Boycott so they can change their name to J. C. Penneyless.

[jocon307]

“I guess I’ll have to look at Macy’s web site now.”

Try Kohl’s, the shirts I get a Kohl’s are much better than the similar quality from Macy’s, much better.

You can also sometimes do very well at Sears at the clearance racks. I gave up on Sears clothes about 25 years ago, but lately I’ve gotten some great buys on some nice stuff there.

[RightWingConspirator]

JC Penney’s CEO, Ron Johnson, formerly at Apple, obviously doesn’t understand that JC Penney was founded in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902, and it’s growth was made possible by conservative, ordinary Americans. Unfortunately the huge majority of Penney’s customers (many, like me, who are now or soon to be “former” Penney’s customers) don’t think like the liberal denizens of Silicon Valley. Their new format ads suck, their models are ugly and their appeal to the gay crowd doesn’t impress me at all.

[narses]

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[LostInBayport]

Thanks for the suggestions (Kohl’s & Sears). I will check both sites (sometimes they have clearance sections online too). I was hoping a FReeper or two would chime in with some hints!

[mountn man]

J. C. Penney's father was a farmer and unpaid Baptist minister who taught his children to believe in the Golden Rule. Young Penney wanted to be a lawyer but could not afford college tuition. After high school he worked on his father's farm and found employment as a clerk in a local dry goods store. He moved to Colorado, where he opened his own butcher shop, which promptly failed. He went to work in another dry goods store, and after a few years he was offered the job of assistant manager at a Wyoming shop called the Golden Rule Store. The store's name reflected his own philosophy of life, so he believed it was God's will that he take the job.

When the Golden Rule Store proved prosperous, Penney was offered a chance to buy a one-third share in a new store, in Kemmerer, Wyo. The price was $2,000, and he had only $500 in savings, but he signed an I.O.U. for the rest. The Golden Rule Store in Kemmerer opened on 14 Apr 1902, with manager and co-owner Penney living in the attic, and it is now considered the first store in the Penney chain. Within a few years Penney was a partner in three Golden Rule stores, and in 1907 he bought out his partners.

His stores were among the first retailers to offer "one price for all" instead of haggling on almost every sale, and Penney set the price low enough to earn "a fair remuneration and not all the profits the traffic will bear". He instituted a profit-sharing program for store managers, which was later expanded to include all employees. Within seven years he had twenty-two stores, and in 1913 the business was incorporated as J.C. Penney Stores Company, keeping "the Golden Rule" as an informal motto. For many years he oversaw the company's hiring, and explained his philosophy as, "Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk". When the owner of his home town dry goods store retired in 1927, Penney bought the Hamilton, Missouri, store where he had first worked, and made it Penney's 500th store.

After the 1929 stock crash, Penney lost virtually all his personal wealth, and borrowed against his life insurance policies to help the company meet its payroll. Suffering his own depression, he briefly checked into John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium. The company, of course, survived and prospered again, and so did its founder. After regaining his health and wealth, he became known as a philanthropist, establishing or giving many millions to numerous charities. He also wrote several folksy books offering homespun homilies of running a business by ethical principles.

By virtually all accounts Penney's approach was sincere, and "the Golden Rule" was more than a mere slogan. He rode city buses to work at Penney's New York headquarters, and as late as the 1960s, while Penney was in his 70s, he regularly visited his company's stores and occasionally stepped behind the counter to help customers. Penney was one of the first businessmen to call his employees "associates", but they actually were associates -- by his death in 1971, the company's profit-sharing program included all of its 50,000 store workers, and Penney's was America's second largest non-grocery retailer behind Sears Roebuck. With decades of more ordinary business management since his death, the company's reputation and profits have, of course, declined.

http://www.nndb.com/people/656/000160176/

A merchant who approaches business with the idea of serving the public well has nothing to fear from the competition.
James Cash Penney

A store's best advertisement is the service its goods render, for upon such service rest the future, the good-will, of an organization.
James Cash Penney

As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for.
James Cash Penney

Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change.
James Cash Penney

Clock watchers never seem to be having a good time.
James Cash Penney

Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.
James Cash Penney

Determine to do some thinking for yourself. Don't live entirely upon the thoughts of others. Don't be an automaton.
James Cash Penney

Do not primarily train men to work. Train them to serve willingly and intelligently.
James Cash Penney

Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it.
James Cash Penney

Exchange ideas frequently.
James Cash Penney

Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.
James Cash Penney

Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence begets trust. Service brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership.
James Cash Penney

I believe a man is better anchored who has a belief in the Supreme Being.
James Cash Penney

I believe in trusting men, not only once but twice - in giving a failure another chance.
James Cash Penney

I cannot remember a time when the Golden Rule was not my motto and precept, the torch that guided my footsteps.
James Cash Penney

I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life's problems.
James Cash Penney

I never trust an executive who tends to pass the buck. Nor would I want to deal with him as a customer or a supplier.
James Cash Penney

I was long brought up to think that it was nothing short of a crime to miss a sale.
James Cash Penney

It is always the start that requires the greatest effort.
James Cash Penney

It is the service we are not obliged to give that people value most.
James Cash Penney

It was always my practice to train salespeople under my direct supervision, and to treat children with the utmost consideration.
James Cash Penney

Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence.
James Cash Penney

Men are not great or small because of their material possessions. They are great or small because of what they are.
James Cash Penney

My definition of an executive's job is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through other people.
James Cash Penney

No business can succeed in any great degree without being properly organized.
James Cash Penney

No company can afford not to move forward. It may be at the top of the heap today but at the bottom of the heap tomorrow, if it doesn't.
James Cash Penney

The greatest teacher I know is the job itself.
James Cash Penney

The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress.
James Cash Penney

The men who have furnished me with my greatest inspiration have not been men of wealth, but men of deeds.
James Cash Penney

The problem with the bronco is to get on and stay on. This is the problem with the Golden Rule-to understand and apply.
James Cash Penney

The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself.
James Cash Penney

The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts.
James Cash Penney

Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless.
James Cash Penney

There has never been a time when a career in the Penney Company was not a challenge that brought out the best in a man.
James Cash Penney

There's no better friend to any merchant than a fair competitor.
James Cash Penney

Too many would-be executives are slaves of routine.
James Cash Penney

We can serve our customers well only if our buying jobs are right. You cannot sell if you haven't ordered wanted goods into your store.
James Cash Penney

We get real results only in proportion to the real values we give.
James Cash Penney

[married21]

I used to work at Penney’s in the 1980s. It was Middle America, but wanted to be more sophisticated, so it started a designer line called Halston for women. That bombed because no sophisticated/rich people wanted to buy clothes at Penney’s and no Penney’s shoppers wanted to pay that much. They seem to still have this problem today, of wanting to be thought worldly, yet having a more pedestrian customer base. I can skip Penneys, but the other retailers are pro-gay also, aren’t they?

[RightWingConspirator]

Because they don’t have to spend money on having and raising children! Many of they also come from well-to-do families where they didn’t have adequate adult supervision when they were growing up.

[rlmorel]

Here is what I just wrote them:

"To Whom it May Concern at J.C. Penney:

I saw that your May 2012 catalogue has a homosexual couple in it. It is your company and livelihood, and as such, is your choice to run as you wish. I neither agree with nor approve of your effort to normalize and legitimatize homosexuality. As such, I will not purchase any merchandise from your organization, and will recommend to family and friends who feel as I do, to refrain from doing business with you as well.

It may very well be that this is a calculated marketing decision, but that would be too generous, especially in view of the role Ellen Degeneres carries out for your company.

There are many people who feel that promoting homosexuality is harmful to the individual, to the family, and to society, and I am one of them. If you wish to promote homosexuality as a normal and healthy lifestyle, you will do so without my support or my money. I normally would not welcome the bankruptcy of a company that pays people to work for a living, but since I see your open and enthusiastic support of homosexuality as morally bankrupt, I can only have the point of view that your company should lose the financial means to assist in the cultural erosion of society. And I say that with regret, considering the many employees who surely work for you who feel as I do, but have to accept your advocacy as a condition of keeping their jobs."

[RightWingConspirator]

And Michael Jackson used to shop there when Penney’s had their little boys jeans half-off sales!

[RedMDer]

Click

[RightWingConspirator]

I went to work as a management trainee for Penney’s in Salt Lake City in early 1964 when I graduated from college. My tenure there was only three months long when my draft board sent me a “Report for Physical” notice. Penney’s paid us in cash every week, and we received silver dollars instead of dollar bills. Wish I had kept them!

[Halls]

I won’t be shopping at JCPenney’s anymore.