Jackson Hewitt Hosts a Dance Party

Fresh out of bankruptcy, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. is ready to reinvent itself this tax season. And it’s starting with Montel Jordan.

The performer’s R&B hit “This Is How We Do It” provides the soundtrack for a new Jackson Hewitt advertising campaign, called, unsurprisingly, “Jackson Hewitt’s How You Do It.”

One spot starts with a closeup of a polo-shirt-clad guy the narrator informs us is Steve, who has just gotten a refund from Jackson Hewitt. While the summer anthem of 1995 blasts, Steve boogies down on a desk, and excited Jackson Hewitt employees around the room start dancing along. (Note the woman in the crisp white shirt and nametag who’s doing the “sprinkler.”)

The company is trying to lure customers to their locations, which include storefronts as well as kiosks in 2,800 Wal-Mart locations across the country, with the promise of “tax refund joy,” Debra Dowd, chief marketing officer for the company, said in a statement.

“Looking at the tax services category, it became clear that no brand was connecting with the positive emotion a high percentage of filers experience every year at tax time,” she said.

Jackson Hewitt’s approach makes it somewhat of a renegade in the industry, according to Richard Ward of 22squared, the advertising agency Jackson Hewitt worked with on the campaign.

“Jackson Hewitt is a challenger brand, and going into tax season, they’re not going to play by category rules,” said Ward, the agency’s president and chief executive.

Jackson Hewitt has reason to try something new in 2012. Last year saw it struggle under hefty debt and interest burdens, and it eventually filed for bankruptcy in May. The Parsippany, N.J., company, the country’s second-largest tax preparer, emerged from Chapter 11 in August under a restructuring deal that revamped its balance sheet and cleared it of accusations that it bilked consumers with short-term, high-interest refund-anticipation loans.

The company had faced class-action lawsuits challenging its practice of offering the loans, which allow customers to borrow against their expected tax refund. Many of those plaintiffs were pooled into the company’s unsecured creditor class, which eventually negotiated a deal that set aside $1.1 million for the group.

While many tax preparers have ditched the refund-anticipation loans, which have been criticized by consumer advocates and abandoned by all but one lender, Jackson Hewitt is still touting them on its new commercials.

The promise of the loans is short-lived, though: 2012 seems to be the last year Jackson Hewitt can offer them. Reuters reported last month that Republic Bancorp, which funds Jackson Hewitt’s refund anticipation loans and is the last refund-anticipation lender standing, is set to stop funding them in 2013 because of the settlement of a lawsuit between the bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

But please, don’t let the news about the refund-anticipation loans affect your enjoyment of the spunky new commercials, which launched earlier this week. You can catch them on cable networks like TNT, TBS, BET and A&E, according to the New York Times.