DeVito/Verdi Blog

The Duane Reader

Challenge

Other than adding four colors, the traditional circular that retailers rely on hasn’t changed that much over the past 150 years.

We all know younger people are not reading printed circulars like past generations, so we needed to find a new way to not only get a circular in their hands…but in their pocket.

Duane Reade, the iconic New York City drug store (253 locations) has been printing millions of its weekly circular called The Duane Reader. It is vital to its business, yet many times it falls out of the newspaper or is simply left unread and without people engaged in it.

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Reposted from the New York Times

MACY’S, F. A. O. Schwarz and Saks Fifth Avenue are not the only retail landmarks of New York City: there is also the Duane Reade drugstore chain. With 253 stores in and around New York, Duane Reade is a near-ubiquitous presence in the city, as its former slogan, “Everywhere you go, Duane Reade,” put it.

For most New Yorkers, Duane Reades are an unavoidable fact of life. There is one next to the subway, one across the street from work, one next to the grocery store. If you wanted to buy your toothpaste somewhere else, you would be challenged: there are only 13 Walgreens, 27 Rite-Aids, and 15 CVS stores in Manhattan, according to those stores’ Web sites, versus dozens of Duane Reade stores.

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GOING FOR THE HIT

By Joyce Rutter Kaye

DeVito/Verdi’s advertising for local clients displays lots of New York attitude.

The moment visitors enter Sal DeVito’s corner office, they are silently and deliberately flipped the bird.  It’s not DeVito doing the arm-bending-although he might, with a little provocation; the gesture is the centerpiece of a print ad DeVito/Verdi created for Daffy’s, a discount clothing chain.  In it, the sleeves of a European dress shirt are artfully arranged in response to its suggested retail price of $125.  “We have a suggestion for whoever suggested it,” says the copy.  Looming large on DeVito’s office wall, this ad embodies the irreverent, wise-guy attitude for which the New York agency is known.  It also symbolizes the art director’s personal perspective on the dark years he toiled away unnoticed at large, anonymous agencies like Ted Bates and Y&R.

Now that DeVito’s name is on the door, he has no intention of producing namby-pamby work.  Since he joined the agency five years ago, it has maintained a street-smart voice that clearly belongs to its Brooklyn-born creative director.  Many print ads are posterlike, with a strong, singular image and punchy headlines; television spots exude the same simplicity.  One controversial Daffy’s ad which outraged advocates for the mentally ill shows a straightjacket shot against a cinderblock wall.  “If you’re paying over $100 for a dress shirt,” the copy reads, “may we suggest a jacket to go with it?”  Sometimes just a headline is enough.  A campaign launching listings guide Time Out New York in subway cars last fall, for example, told straphangers, “Welcome to New York.  Now get out.”  DeVito calls this approach “going for the hit.”  Advertising, he believes, is worthless if it doesn’t cause a reaction.  “You gotta feel something,” DeVito explains.  “So much of advertising, you watch it and you don’t feel a thing.  I love to get the little hairs on the back of your neck to stand up a bit.  You know how much a commercial is worth if you can make that happen?”

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