This is a Spike Jonze ad called "Pardon Our Dust." Here's a commentary on what happened to the ad.

http://www.slate.com/id/2132600/

Stellar, absolutely stellar.

The commentary is great - turns out this is the "special" version - "Hall of the Mountain King" wasn't the version they ran on TV, but it's so much better.

Two interesting comments from that slate article:

1.
"Side note: I was thinking about the fact that Monica Lewinsky's famous blue dress came from the Gap. That was back in the mid-1990s—rosier days for the company. Can you imagine a White House intern now—a well-off woman from Beverly Hills who considers herself fashion-forward—buying a dress from the Gap? I can't. Maybe Banana Republic. … It's just a sign of how badly things have gone for the brand: They can't even get world leaders to ejaculate on their clothes anymore."

2.
"Instead of running the "Dust" spot in just a couple of markets, and tying it exclusively to the remodeling effort, Gap should have used this ad as the centerpiece of a national campaign. Directed by Spike Jonze (the man behind Being John Malkovich and Adaptation), the spot is hilariously funny. I love the way it takes its time at first, allowing the petty transgressions to mount. Only after a woman snaps a hanger, with an explosion of plastic shards, does the camera zoom in frenetically and signal that all hell is about to break loose. From here, it's a wild romp, wonderfully executed.

The spot has been linked to all over the Web—evidence of how entertaining it is. And it would have been the perfect solution to the Gap's brand problem: Some self-deprecating humor, mixed with an ingenious visual metaphor. They wouldn't need to change a single word in that tag line. Alas, a spokesperson says they have no plans to run the spot in the future.

I just can't understand spending all that money on a big-name director, and a big-budget shoot, and then frittering the results away on such a limited purpose. Did Gap not see the possibilities? Were they too scared to go for broke? Or are they waiting on designs for some more appealing clothes before they brag about a new beginning? (I suppose they might not feel comfortable selling a revamped brand before they revamp the brand.)"

NOW THAT'S MY KIND OF STORE!!!

Hey bnsa, nice shiny gold star, congrats.

Clever and awesome.

Adding an *art tag to match tagology of http://www.videosift.com/video/GAP-Ad-by-Spike-Jonze

And a *promote for a truly worthy vid!

Video added to art channel (art called by gold star member Krupo)

Re-promoting this video to the front page as a VideoSift Classic. Originally published on Saturday 26th August 2006 (promotion called by gold star member Krupo)

Tags changed from "commercial, ad, funny, trash, dust, yarly" to "commercial, ad, spike,jonze,dust, yarly" by gold star member Krupo.