I don't think I've ever seen a corporation prostrate themselves like J.C. Penney does in their new apology commercial

While I was watching Supernatural last night, this J.C. Penney commercial kept airing where the company apologizes to its customers. It was more than just an apology, though, it was begging. Check out the commercial below and see for yourself:


It's almost like they're a woman who cheated on her girlfriend and is trying desperately to get back with her.

Please, baby, I need you to buy our shit.

It's not that far off base, apparently. I did some googling today and as it turns out, the commercial is a mea culpa from the retailer to its customer base. Back in 2011, J.C. Penney hired a guy named Ron Johnson, a former Apple exec who came up with the idea for Apple Stores and Genius Bars, to run their company and well, it turned into a clusterfuck. He managed to alienate and drive off older and longstanding customers by getting rid of discounts and coupons, which had been the bread and butter of the company for decades. He also came up with this idea to put "stores" inside of each outlet. These "stores" were just areas within each J.C. Penney that featured clothes and products by a single company/label. These, at least, were successful, but not enough to save Johnson's job; the company shit-canned him last month and rehired his predecessor.

While Ron Johnson's run in the company was mostly a flop, it was during it that J.C. Penney became more pro-LGBT. First, they hired Ellen DeGeneres as spokeswoman, then quite boldly, ran sales ads featuring same-sex parents. Needless to say, that pissed off the right-wingers, but really, that's just icing on the cake. Truthfully, when I first saw the commercial, I thought that they had backpedaled and were apologizing for their stance. As far I know, they haven't and I hope they won't.