Wow, this was unexpected!
So, yesterday, in response to new JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson's fantastic, no-bullshit defense of Ellen Degeneres as their spokesperson, I shot a quick email off to the company to praise them for their decision:
Subject: General Inquiries
Topic: other
Comments: Thank you to CEO Ron Johnson and the JC Penney administration for defending Ellen Degeneres and standing up to homophobic bigotry. I haven't shopped at JC Penney in several years but will be certain to do so soon!
I initially received just a generic "thank you for your comment" automated reply.
However, this morning I received the following follow-up response:
Dear (Brainwrap),
Our recent announcement, rooted in rich heritage, re-imagines every aspect of our business to become America's favorite store. We appreciate your feedback and are equally excited to partner with America's favorite host and former jcp associate, Ellen Degeneres, to help tell our story. Thank you for your feedback.
Amy
jcp.com Customer Care
We make it affordable, you make it yours!
ROFL! I love that last part--"Former jcp associate, Ellen Degeneres"
I take it that means that Ellen used to work at Penney's when she was in high school or something?
Also, as a branding thing, it's interesting to note that they were very careful to spell it "jcp" instead of "JC Penney" or even "JCP". I guess they're going with the lower-case image thing as part of the re-branding.
Anyway, no big deal, but I got a kick out of this; always nice to get a personalized message (even if poor "Amy" has had to copy & paste the same response to a zillion other Ellen supporters this morning...)
As an aside, Ron Johnson was the mastermind behind Apple's retail stores, which have become an astonishing, beyond-even-Steve-Jobs'-dreams success. He left Apple to take over as CEO of JCP last fall to completely overhaul the company, and it looks like he's off to a great start.
Really have to completely revamp the website as well, though; it's stuck in the early 00's...
Update: Oh, here's an amusing sideline:
The just-created "1 Million People who Support Ellen for JC Penney" Facebook page already has over 80,000 members...or more than twice as many as the 40,000 "1 Million" moms who were protesting Ellen in the first place.
Heh.
https://www.facebook.com/...