Walmart and JCPenney are launching new advertising campaigns to reintroduce themselves to shoppers and encourage them to think differently about shopping there. Both brands believe they need to update their image, but their challenges and marketing strategies are different.
Walmart’s “Who Knew?” ad campaign launches with wind at the brand’s back. Walmart’s comparable U.S. sales rose 4.5 percent in its latest first quarter of 2026, and ecommerce revenues were up a remarkable 21 percent. However, JCPenney has been in a downward trajectory since 2010 when revenues nearly reached $18 billion and fell to $10.7 billion in 2019 after it went private post-bankruptcy.
Walmart is adding new shopping dimensions to its image, reinforcing that it’s more than just a discount mass retailer but rather an innovative digital retail leader. JCPenney, on the other hand, is focused on optics to change consumers’ minds and convince them to view the 123-year-old brand in a fresh light.
Same Premise, Different Strategies
While neither company refers to these marketing efforts as a rebrand, they effectively serve as one. Both start with the same idea: You thought you knew us, but you don’t. The difference lies in their messaging.
Walmart is introducing a fact-based approach: half a billion products online and express delivery in as little as an hour from its stores no more than ten miles away from 90 percent of U.S. households (Amazon can’t say that). JCPenney is actively trying to change perceptions to get people to give it another look.
JCPenney’s full-scale perceptual shift is a tough challenge. Cognitive biases—including confirmation bias, anchoring bias, and belief perseverance—make it extremely difficult for people to change their preconceived notions. In essence, JCP’s greater challenge is to overcome long-held opinions about its brand rather than expanding consumers’ ideas associated with it.
Walmart’s Bet on “Who Knew?”
Since individuals tend to hold onto their established beliefs, learning something entirely new about a brand is easier than changing what they already think they know. Enter Walmart’s new campaign, “Who Knew?” supporting a subtle logo update in January. CMO William White stated, “Walmart aims to be an inspirational, digital retailer that provides all the products, brands, and services our customers need and want.”
The brand introduced a new wordmark “inspired by Sam Walton’s trucker hat” and what it calls a “modern, custom font that differentiates Walmart from the crowd.” But many social media commentators dismissed the change as barely noticeable, even laughable. “I can’t believe someone got paid for this,” one X user quipped.
After watching the commercial, they may be laughing with Walmart, not at it – the highest achievement for any ad campaign. The campaign is credited to Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett, Fallon, Digitas, and Contender advertising agencies, leveraging the happy coincidence of booking an actor literally named Walton to step into the role – the acclaimed star of The White Lotus Walton Goggins.
“Walmart’s new ad campaign is designed to make consumers rethink their perceptions of the brand,” GlobalData’s Neil Saunders shared with me. “It hits all the right notes. It is funny and engaging, uses great actors and its message actually makes people pause and think.”
In a series of four vignettes, the message makes its point. Walmart carries almost anything you could ever want or need in its stores, online and via its app. In addition, a Spanish-language version starring Stephanie Beatriz is also available online. Distribution will extend to TV, out-of-home ads and paid social media, including TikTok TopView. Reddit users will also be able to post their own “Who Knew?” Walmart moments. “The wider point is that the ad is not produced in isolation. It is part of an ongoing mission to broaden the appeal of Walmart, and it highlights tangible changes the company has made on the ground,” GlobalData’s Saunders said. “A low-price message is still at the heart of Walmart, but it is now so much more than this. When it comes to online shopping, Amazon is often the default. Walmart is trying to break this habitual thought pattern and is saying, ‘Look, we’re here – give us a try,’” he added.
Heavier Lift for JCPenney.
JCPenney’s “Yes, JCPenney” campaign arrived in April, taking a cheeky approach with an “apology” to loyal customers: “Not enough people know what you already know.” It continues, “JCPenney is more than just a great deal – it’s home to unbelievable items and incredible fashion at a great deal. That’s why we can no longer keep it a secret.” Ironically, Walmart’s “Who Knew?” slightly manic commercial begins with Goggins relaxing in his home sauna, saying, “You want to know a secret? This sauna is actually from Walmart.”
The “Yes, JCPenney” campaign has much more convincing to do than Walmart’s. JCPenney has been in a downward spiral for the past 15 years and accelerated after the disastrous choice of Ron Johnson as CEO in 2011. Sales continued to fall and stores to close, with the final blow delivered in 2020 with its bankruptcy. It was subsequently acquired by the SPARC Group to form Catalyst Brands earlier this year.
Working in JCPenney’s favor is top marketer, Marisa Thalberg. She’s been inducted into the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame after having been named to Forbes’ “World’s Most Influential CMOs” list five times and Business Insider named her “one of the most innovative CMOs in the world.” Before joining as JCPenney consulting CMO in October 2024 and then joining Catalyst as executive vice president, chief customer and marketing officer in January, Thalberg worked for Estée Lauder, Taco Bell, Lowe’s and SeaWorld/Busch Gardens. However, she is facing her biggest marketing challenge yet at JCPenney: turning around the 123-year-old department store, which is faltering in a steeply declining retail sector.
On April 12, the campaign launched on television in spots highlighting JCPenney’s on-trend fashion. That message was then dropped on Times Square billboards and at local malls, featuring high fashion looks with the copy, “It’s from where?” accompanied by a QR tag that led shoppers to get the answer.
JCPenney was not identified in the ads. The “anonymous ad” concept was created by Mischief, Densu X, FleishmanHillard and VaynerMedia agencies to break through what Thalberg called a “sea of sameness” in retail advertising. “We’re not going to use the same old retail marketing playbook,” she shared with Marketing Dive. “I wanted to be fresh, self-aware and acknowledge that…it’s time for you to get in the know.”
One month after the campaign broke, the company announced that the items featured in the anonymous ads sold out five times faster than the company’s average. There has also been a “major increase” in interest in contemporary fashion this year compared with last, so it expects to double sales volume as the year progresses.
Carrying forward that early momentum, it doubled down on the message in a series of new ads, this time with proper attribution, “Yes, JCPenney,” focused on a price theme, “We’ve got the receipts.” One spot features a woman boarding her flight in a “$250 runway-ready matching set in a bold print for $72.” According to the commercial, she got the reward of a great bargain matched with a “$250 lingering look” from a woman in first class. Ok, we know advertising is aspirational and as much a fairytale as building a retail myth and legend. A $250 runway-ready outfit is a runway far off the beaten designer fashion path.
Riding Tailwinds vs. Battling Headwinds
Walmart’s “Who Knew?” ad campaign launches with wind at the brand’s back. Walmart’s comparable U.S. sales rose 4.5 percent in its latest first quarter of 2026, and ecommerce revenues were up a remarkable 21 percent. However, JCPenney has been in a downward trajectory since 2010 when revenues nearly reached $18 billion and fell to $10.7 billion in 2019 after it went private post-bankruptcy. Most recently, JCPenney laid off 300 warehouse workers in Texas after Catalyst Brands conducted two major corporate layoffs earlier this year affecting five percent followed by nine percent of its workforce.
Headwinds from broader retail trends affect both brands as well as the entire department store sector. The investments in both of these new campaigns have not been disclosed, but one thing is certain: They both spent a pretty penny to transform public perception. Another thing for sure is that JCPenney will have to continue pumping money into its turnaround because changing consumer perceptions is a greater challenge than giving consumers a reason to expand their preconceived notions about Walmart.
