The brand that once sold safari jackets alongside prose about the Serengeti has found a new way to tell stories: a five-episode office comedy on TikTok.
Banana Republic, the Gap-owned retailer, debuted the first installment of "The Agency" on Wednesday, marking the company's initial foray into scripted microseries. The production stars Jack Innanen, of the series "Adults" and "Big Mistakes," playing four different employees at a fictional full-service travel agency called Travel & Tours. The plot, such as it is, concerns a corporate modernizer (played by Taylor Ortega, Mr. Innanen's "Big Mistakes" co-star) who arrives to disrupt the old-fashioned shop. Milo Tucker-Meyer plays the intern.
The format has become something of a land rush for consumer brands seeking the attention of younger audiences. Maybelline, Crocs and Marc Jacobs have all produced their own microdramas in recent months, though most have leaned toward the soapy romance stories that first popularized the genre overseas. Banana Republic's contribution is positioned as workplace comedy, complete with quick cuts and knowing glances at the camera.
(The characters are, of course, impeccably dressed throughout.)
Meena Anvary, Banana Republic's chief marketing officer, said the project was intended to honor the brand's "storytelling heritage" — a reference to the company's origins in 1978, when founders Mel and Patricia Ziegler, a journalist and newspaper illustrator, sold travel apparel alongside actual travel writing in their catalogs. The company was then called Banana Republic Travel & Safari Clothing Company, which sounds less like a retail concept than a Wes Anderson production company.
Ms. Anvary declined to say whether more microseries would follow, noting that executives wanted to observe how audiences responded first. But the effort fits into a larger entertainment push at Gap Inc., which earlier this year hired former Paramount executive Pam Kaufman as chief entertainment officer — a title that would have seemed improbable at a clothing company not long ago.
New episodes will appear weekly on TikTok and other social platforms, alongside behind-the-scenes material. Whether anyone will remember to buy the clothes remains, as always, the open question.
Original story published in The Hollywood Reporter: "Banana Republic Debuts First Scripted Microseries, an Office Comedy Starring Jack Innanen (Exclusive)"