For students on the move, their backpacks become constant, indispensable companions, never far from reach. They function almost like a good friend, ready and able to offer up snacks, a spare pen to jot down ideas, the notes from last week’s class, gloves on cold days, and some tissues during cold season. Recognizing that a good backpack supplies all the critical tools, devices, food, and educational material a busy student might need over the course of a day, JanSport took the parallel a step further, advertising its backpacks as anthropomorphized companions who are well-suited for preparing kids for the challenges of heading back to school each year.

One popular advertising spot featured animated backpacks that offered deadpan delivery, designed to keep students company during their toughest moments. One awkwardly delivered a cute song in a bathroom stall. Another offered sympathy during a breakup. The odd but emotionally resonant campaign resounded with students, such that consumer interest in JanSport skyrocketed. Measured by online traffic, it rose 65 percent; indicators of consumer engagement jumped 24 percent. And perhaps most important, brand sales increased more than 70 percent.

Thus, when the next year rolled around, JanSport doubled down on its advertising strategy. A television spot highlights two young adults entering an elevator, then riding to their respective floors in polite, awkward silence. Unbeknownst to the humans, their JanSport backpacks have come alive and joined in a corny, off-key duet. In conjunction with the cute campaign, JanSport expanded the available designs for its product offerings, introducing more fun and charming patterns, like leopard and other animal prints and tropical-seeming coconuts.

Although primarily designed for television campaigns, the ads can readily get uploaded as short-form videos for social media platforms like Instagram Reels. Such reactions were notably common among school-aged students, for whom the absurd, surreal quality of the comedic spots aptly matches their own sense of humor. Accordingly, following the elevator campaign, JanSport reported a nearly 400 percent annual increase in overall engagement with its brand.

It is not as if such appeal were obvious, honestly. For decades, JanSport has sought to establish its strong reputation on the basis of its good quality and value. Functional, often limited to solid, drab colors, previous generations of backpacks got the job done, without a lot of humor being evoked. Such a history makes the latest advertising campaigns even more remarkable, indicative of an innovative, dynamic effort to appeal to new generations of students. In adjusting to the needs, humor, and style preferences of young consumers, JanSport sends them a strong signal that it respects and aims to accommodate their preferences.

In this sense, its recent adaptations and marketing campaigns seem to be hitting all the right notes—even if the singing backpacks in its ads can’t.

Discussion Questions

1. Do JanSport’s latest campaigns authentically and effectively capture Gen Z’s humor?
2. Suggest next year’s back-to-school advertising concept for JanSport backpacks.

Sources: Jessica Hammers, “Why JanSport Revived Its Cringeworthy Back-to-School Ads to Reach Gen Z,” Retail Dive, July 16, 2025; David Gianatasio, “On Brand, Off-Key: JanSport Backpacks Sing Their Own Praises,” Muse by Clios, June 25, 2025; Diane Bradley, “Which Brand’s Back-to-School 2025 Campaign Is Your Favorite?,” PR Week, August 20, 2025.