A racy advert for JC Penney has been making it’s way around the internet over the past few days. The ad, which won a prize at this weekend’s Cannes Lions Awards, features two teens practicing putting their clothes back on quickly before heading down to the basement for a romp. Problem is, it may not be a legitimate JC Penney ad.

Because the spot is so well made, and because someone had to enter it it at Cannes, JC Penney is blaming its ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. The ad agency, in turn, is pointing the finger at production company, Epoch Films of New York, which is indeed the listed entrant. There is speculation “the video may have been filmed after hours by a producer at Epoch who was working on the Penney ads for Saatchi.”

A commercial like this won’t land with the core demographic of JCP’s shoppers. But on the flip side, teens are too smart for a commercial like this. It fails on both fronts. It pisses off their core and doesn’t the brand’s desirability with teens.

This video is spreading quickly through blogs, social networks, and Twitter. The retailer will need to work quickly to counter it’s message. This is a great opportunity for them to use social media effectively and distance themselves from the video. I’d like to see the retailer working with bloggers to get their message out there. Otherwise, the video is going to continue to spread and fewer eyeballs are going to see their retraction.

Of course, this is a moot point if the retailer, in any way, authorized this advertisement. Then it’s even more of a tangled mess and the only way to resolve it is with honesty and transparency.

It will be interesting to watch how this develops over the next few days and how the retailer responds.

The advert in question is below. As a warning, it does show people dressing and undressing, so it might be slightly NSFW: