Audrey Hepburn may have window shopped at Tiffany’s, but the Gap says that her fans have been lured inside its own stores, as the style icon’s new ad campaign fills shop windows and television screens this fall.
    On Thursday, Gap Inc. cited its Audrey Hepburn skinny black jeans television and print campaign as “supporting improved store traffic in September” that contributed to a less–than-expected overall same-store sales decline of 3 percent. Wall Street had been anticipating a fall of 4.2 percent on average, according to Reuters research.
    The television ads feature the waifish Hepburn wearing a beatnik uniform of black turtleneck and cigarette pants in the film “Funny Face” but dancing to AC/DC ’s rock anthem “Back in Black.”
    The exuberant ads, evocative of Apple Computer ’s iPod TV campaign, have everyone talking in the blogosphere, and retail analysts on Wall Street wondering whether the campaign can drum up sales for the struggling brand.
    In cyberspace, some bloggers gush about the ads while others are offended to see Audrey hawking pants.
    “At least she’s not dancing with a vacuum cleaner like was done with Fred Astaire,” wrote “Caff” in a recent response to the ThirdWay advertising blog, a reference to Dirt Devil ads in the 1990s.
    Financial analysts weighing in on the campaign give mixed predictions over the ultimate success of the campaign.
    While some express skepticism that the target Gap audience of young men and women will even recognize the star, others say the ads bring a jolt of much-needed excitement to the retailer, which has struggled this year with slumping sales and merchandise missteps.
    “From a marketing point of view it’s back-to-Gap genius,” said Roth Capital Partners analyst Liz Pierce recently.
    A recent Merrill Lynch September sales preview of various specialty retailers noted that the ads “were successful in raising the brand’s profile and cutting through the ad clutter that pervaded this month.”     
    But on Thursday, C.L. King analyst Mark Montagna noted in a research note that the key issue for Gap merchandise, despite its improvements, was whether it has improved relative to the rest of the market. Montagna noted a “wide gulf between Gap and the more relevant brands of today.”