Since 1967, JanSport backpacks have been everywhere. Stuffed into lockers, dragged across campuses, wedged into bathroom stalls. Over time, they became seen as “the bag your mom bought you as a kid,” not a cultural staple for 18–24-year-olds.
In 2024, JanSport partnered with Party Land on Always With You, a breakout campaign defined by irreverent humor, music-first storytelling, and TikTok-native sensibility. The work marked a creative step-change for the brand, driving a 385% year-over-year spike in engagement and contributing to JanSport highest-grossing month in 57 years.
Heading into the 2025 back-to-school season, the goal was to build on that success and evolve a now-recognizable platform into something fresh and unmistakably Gen Z, while staying rooted in the offbeat humor, unserious tone, intentionally imperfect music that made the work resonate.
Gen Z is allergic to polished, aspirational, traditional advertising. Instead, they gravitate toward content that feels raw, self-aware, and emotionally honest.
They also don’t see JanSport as a lifestyle accessory. They see it as a dependable, basic companion that has been with them through messy, unforgettable (and forgettable), and genuinely funny moments.
That was the insight: JanSport isn’t just a product. It’s a witness that endures everything its owner puts it through.
The creative idea began with a simple and delightfully absurd question: What if your JanSport could speak… or better yet, sing? What would it say about the mundane and chaotic aspects of young adulthood that it encounters on a daily basis?
Our answer became a series of five musical-comedy films, where the bag is the star. Each film had its own melodramatic, deadpan “pocket-mouth” anthem, sung straight from the backpack’s front zipper pouch.
Our emotional antihero - the JanSport backpack – shared its unfiltered thoughts through raw, off-key performances. We used puppetry and practical effects to create the expressive zipper mouths and make them sing, emote, and react.
We wrote original genre-based songs that heightened the humor and tension in what were otherwise mundane, everyday scenarios – like rotting, bug attacks, elevator rides, overstuffing. Punk riffs, ballads, and other musical styles were paired with untrained vocal performances to preserve a handmade, imperfect charm.
Instead of listing product features, the films highlighted the durability and usefulness of JanSport by dramatizing what the bags actually experience. They were designed to feel like a TikTok, embracing imperfection, emotional exaggeration, and a lo-fi sensibility that mirrors Gen Z’s feed.
The bag’s unwavering devotion became the message. And instead of trying to portray JanSport as something it’s not, we positioned it as what it really is: a basic, loyal, always-there companion.
The work ran on TikTok, YouTube, and digital channels.
Four weeks after launch, YouTube viewers were 4.5x more likely to search “JanSport” than non-viewers.
Engagement rose 86%, view-through rates climbed 110%, and CPMs dropped 20%.
On TikTok, the campaign achieved a 99% view-through rate (up from 85% the prior year), signaling that the work not only captured attention but acted as entertainment in its own right.
Social comments repeatedly called the ads “unforgettable,” “the good kind of weird,” and “literally the funniest backpack content ever made.”
Impressions and reach outpaced last year’s record-setting totals, reinforcing the strength of a long-term creative platform that continues to resonate with 18–24-year-olds.
The campaign further cemented JanSport’s role as a cultural companion for Gen Z.
