hhgregg Christmas in July

About

hhgregg Christmas in July refers to a 2010 Christmas in July television commercial from the American specialty retailer hhgregg. The advertisement has been used as a source in YouTube Poop Music Videos (YTPMVs) as well as other edits.

History

H.H. Gregg (stylized hhgregg) was an American electronics and home appliance retailer that operated as a retail chain from 1955 until filing for bankruptcy in 2017.^[1] It continues to operate as an online retailer since it was acquired in the same year. The mascot that appears in the Christmas in July commercial, “hh,” was developed in early 2009 by companies Zimmerman Advertising and Hinge Digital to resemble a rolled-up hhgregg advertising circular with floating hands and feet (shown below).^[2] hh was first announced in an hhgregg blog post on July 28th, 2009, with the first commercial being unveiled the following day^[3]. hh is voiced by American voice actor Wally Wingert.

Origin

The Christmas in July commercial was released by hhgregg in July 2010 to promote their Christmas in July sale. The advertisement reuses animations from the company's December 2009 holiday red tag sale commercial (shown below, left).^[4] In July 2010, hhgregg released the commercial with hh singing about the sale to the tune of the Christmas carol Deck the Halls in front of a store before being hit by a snowball.^[5] The commercial was uploaded to YouTube on July 9th, 2010, where it has gained over 300,000 views in almost ten years (shown below, right).

Spread

The earliest known use of the advertisement as a meme was in an October 18th, 2010 YouTube Poop uploaded by YouTube user MisuzuK4M10 (shown below, left). The trend of using the hhgregg Christmas in July commercial as a source in YTPMVs did not start until November 15th, 2014, when YouTube user The Cool Videos remixed the commercial to the main theme of the arcade game Rally-X (shown below, right).

On March 27th, 2015, YTPMV creator HydroDalek uploaded a YTPMV featuring the advertisement tuned to the song "Doin' It Right" by Daft Punk featuring Panda Bear. This edit is one of the most notable edits of the commcercial, having gained over 600,000 views as well as several remixes.

During Christmas of 2016, the advertisement became a semi-major running joke on the bait-and-switch YouTube channel SiIvaGunner. The earliest known use of the meme on the channel was in a high quality rip of "Athena Cykes ~ Courtroom Révolutionnaire 2016" from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Spirit of Justice (shown below, left). On July 31th, 2017, the channel uploaded the high quality rip "Snow halation – Love Live! School idol festival _{after school ACTIVITY}", which features the vocals from the advertisement edited to the tune of "Snow Halation" by idol group μ's from the anime Love Live!, which gained over 170,000 views (shown below, left).

In addition, a YouTube playlist by user Zerkrome featuring edits of the advertisement has gained over 500,000 views as of June 15th, 2020.^[6]

Developments

hhgregg filed for bankruptcy in early 2017 and closed all stores.^[7] In June 2017, the hhgregg brand was acquired by Valor Group who relaunched it as an online retailer.^[8] On November 9th, hhgregg’s Twitter account announced the return of the hh mascot. Giving a poll with the choice a classic and a new design, the old design won by a large majority (shown below)

Which one do you like more?

— hhgregg (@hhgregg) November 9, 2017

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References