Advertising campaigns are the engine of the fashion business. Fashion brands spend millions annually to promote their new products and collections, and the fate of a particular brand often depends on the success of an advertising campaign. Top designers and CEOs of leading fashion houses know that the price of a mistake is their career. They also learned well the rule that scandals and provocations only fuel interest in the product, so it is in the fashion business that you can often find examples of immoral and shocking advertising campaigns.
Sex, drugs, rock-n-roll and more - advertising for fashion brands touches on such taboo topics as racism, inciting religious and political discord, demeaning women, and much more. site presents an overview of the most scandalous advertising campaigns in the fashion industry.
Calvin Klein Jeans, 1980
Advertising is harmless and innocent by modern standards Calvin Klein Jeans caused a real scandal just over thirty years ago and thus forever entered the history of fashion business. Legendary photographer Richard Avedon captured a 15-year-old Brooke Shields, who a few months earlier became the youngest model on the cover Vogue, in blue jeans and a one-button shirt. On advertising posters, Brooke playfully throws his leg up and languidly looks into the camera, while in the video he whistles a simple melody and utters the famous slogan, which became the reason for the increased interest in the campaign: “You wanna know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing "(" Do you want to know what is between me and my jeans? Nothing "). The public saw a sexual connotation in this phrase, and at the same time accused the designer of promoting child pornography. As a result, production of the jeans model that Brooke is showing in the ad was suspended until 1998.
Over the next three decades Calvin Klein more than once shocked the world with his controversial and defiant advertising images, but it was the 1980 campaign that became truly iconic and brought glory to all its heroes.
Yves Saint Laurent, 2000
One of the most scandalous advertising campaigns in the history of the fashion industry is the promotion of the fragrance. Opium from Yves saint laurent... In the photos taken Stephen Meisel.23 year old model. Sophie Dahl appeared completely naked. Her head thrown back, she lies on dark sheets, covering one breast with her hand. Within three weeks after the image was published, the British Advertising Oversight Commission received 948 complaints demanding to ban the dissemination of outrageous images that demean the dignity of women. In addition, according to the British, advertising could provoke a wave of rape. And Dahl's pale skin color suggested to some especially ardent fighters for morality that the main character of the advertisement might already be dead. Advertising posters disappeared from the streets of cities in the United Kingdom, but remained on the pages of glossy magazines.
This scandal did not prevent the campaign Yves saint laurent opium received several prestigious awards and made the brand one of the most talked about in 2000, which, in fact, was what he wanted Tom Ford, who was appointed creative director of the brand a year earlier.
Emanuel Ungaro, 2002
Two years after the scandalous ad was released Yves saint laurent french house Emanuel ungaro decided to repeat the success "Opium" and in the advertisement of his next collection he shot a model who takes a very unambiguous pose - sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, the girl threw one hand behind her head and held the other between her legs. Even at the stage of advertising approval, all glossy magazines refused to publish pictures on their pages. The only publication that printed the scandalous photo was an American Vogue... Perhaps this is one of the few examples when brand representatives themselves tried to stir up the scandal and draw as much attention as possible to the fact that their creative idea remained unclear.
Gucci, 2003
The brand Gucci... In 2003, the famous brand under the leadership of Tom Ford, who had already demonstrated his love for candid photo shoots, showed the world a picture taken Mario Testino... The face, or rather, the body of the advertising campaign was the model Carmen Cass... In the picture, the girl was standing near the wall, lowering her underwear and showing an intimate haircut in the form of the brand logo. Gucci... A young man is kneeling before her. Despite the obvious sexual connotation, the public reacted to advertising quite calmly - the British Advertising Oversight Commission received only 16 complaints demanding to ban the publication of pictures. However, representatives of the brand said that they intended to demonstrate a harmless pun that would refer to the brand's sexy image. And experts quickly agreed with this, stressing that the photo appeared on the pages of magazines intended for an "adult fashionable modern and advanced audience" who would not be offended by such an image.
Sisley, 2007
Italian brand Sisley in her advertising campaigns, she was never shy about flirting with dangerous topics, and Terry Richardson was not averse to both taking another picture on the verge of a foul, and appearing in some of these pictures himself. However, in 2007 the company paid for its scandalous image. A promo photo of the new collection appeared on the Internet, which caused a huge response. Two not very fresh-looking models were sniffing through the white straw straps of the dress Sisley... This whole scene appearance girls, as well as a credit card in white powder, which also appeared in the frame, clearly suggested the use of cocaine. In 2007, two years after the scandal with Kate moss, this topic was no longer very relevant, but still aroused interest. The reaction to the publication of the photograph was immediate: a lot of outraged reviews flooded the Internet. After some time, representatives Sisley made a statement that they have nothing to do with these pictures, the photo is falsification and violates the rights of the company. The inauthenticity of the advertisement was also indicated by a mistake made in the slogan accompanying the image. The authors of the photo, intentionally or accidentally, made a typo in the word Fashion. It is still not entirely clear whether Sisley have become victims of their own image, or the photo was published specifically to attract additional attention to the brand.
Tom Ford, 2007
Having demonstrated his commitment to scandalous photo shoots, while still working in Yves saint laurent and Gucci, in advertising its own brand Tom Ford went much further, completely forgetting about morality and ethics. In 2007, the brand Tom ford presented the first men's fragrance. The original photo shoot with Ford in the lead role seemed boring and insipid to the designer, so he decided to reshoot it and invited another famous provocateur to take the role of the photographer - Terry Richardson... As a result, Tom posted promotional images that were later dubbed glamorous porn. The photo shows a heavily oiled nude body of a model who holds a bottle of perfume on her chest and between her thighs. Tom Ford for men... The shocking advertising never made it out of the online space, however, even without that, it managed to be well remembered by the public. Continuing the theme that same year, Tom presented an ad for his sunglasses collection: a model with glasses Tom ford with brightly painted lips, holds a male middle finger in his mouth, the owner of which does not appear in the frame.
Diesel, 2010
One of the most successful and popular advertising campaigns recent years, which has received a huge number of awards from the professional community, was the 2010 campaign Be stupid of the Italian brand Diesel, in which a series of posters was published, urging to forget about prudence and not be afraid to look strange.
The ironic photos with catchy slogans instantly gained popularity and, at the same time, drew the ad oversight committee's disapproval as being overly sexual, decency and antisocial. As a result, the commission was able to ban the publication of only two posters: on one of them, the girl lifts up a T-shirt and demonstrates her naked chest in front of the surveillance camera, and on the other, the half-naked heroine of the picture takes pictures of herself in the immediate vicinity of the lion. The rest of the prints adorned the streets of the largest cities in the world for a long time.
The slogans accompanying the creative photos read “The smart have brains, the stupid have courage”, “The clever listens to the voice of reason, the stupid listens to the voice of the heart”, “The clever see what is. The foolish see what could have been ”,“ The smart have plans, the foolish have stories ”,“ The foolish try and fail. Mostly they are mistaken "," If we did not have stupid thoughts, we would not have any interesting thoughts "," The smart say no, the stupid say yes "," The smart had one brilliant idea, and it turned out to be stupid "," Stupid may fail. The smart ones don't even try, ”and others. The fans of the brand liked the idea so much that photos imitating advertising posters instantly began to appear on the Internet. Diesel.
Simultaneously with the launch of the promotional campaign on its official website Diesel announced a competition for the stupidest act - fans of the brand had to send a video of their follies, the brightest of which were later included in the video clip Diesel Stupid Music Video.
Donna Karan, 2011
In 2011 Donna Karan decided to draw public attention to the problems of Haiti - the republic was just beginning to recover after the 2010 earthquake and badly needed financial aid... The designer chose the city of Jacmel in the southern part of the country as the filming location, and the Brazilian woman became the main character. Adriana Lima... It would seem that the pictures turned out to be quite trivial and familiar to the fashion industry, but the reviews about the advertisement surprised everyone: Donna was accused of racism. The fact is that in one shot with Adriana in a stylish jumpsuit from the collection Donna karan two black Haitian teenagers appeared. It was this fact that was regarded as a humiliation of the dignity of local residents. According to critics, the use of images of Haitians as "props and background" demonstrates an unacceptable imperialist attitude towards the country. In addition, experts were confused by the contrast between the luxurious image of Lima and the poverty and misery of the young people who accompanied her in this photo.
United Colors of Benetton, 2011
Famous advertising campaigns United colors of benetton do not strive to sell the brand's product (often it is not at all in the photo), but to draw attention to social problems. They raise issues of gender and racial discrimination, touch on such dangerous and unusual for the world of commercial advertising topics as AIDS, war, politics and religion. And, of course, bold and uncompromising footage, most of which were filmed Oliviero Toscani often found themselves at the center of scandals.
The main idea that Benetton seeks to convey in its campaigns - this is universal equality, regardless of race, gender, social or religious affiliation. The apotheosis of this idea was a 1991 advertising poster with a French military cemetery, where soldiers who died during the First World War are buried. The picture, published in the midst of the military conflict in the Persian Gulf, caused a huge resonance in society. A photo of a dying of AIDS attracted no less attention. David Kirby and the heartbroken family of the patient - in 1998 it was not yet accepted to speak about this disease in public. The publication of this non-staged documentary photograph provoked accusations of cynicism and brutality against United colors of benetton... And in 2000, the company published a catalog of photographs and stories of 26 US prison inmates sentenced to death in the electric chair. In Toscani's lens, the criminals gained positive traits and aroused public sympathy, which, of course, angered the families of the victims of their crimes.
The last a loud scandal in history United colors of benetton was the 2011 Unhate campaign - photomontage images of world leaders kissing on the lips appeared on billboards around the world: the President of the United States Barack Obama and the Chinese leader Hu Jintao, ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy and the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, heads of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas and the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, the greatest anger fell on the poster of Pope Benedict XVI and the Egyptian Imam. Mohamed Ahmed el Taib. The Vatican's reaction was unquestioning - images should be banned. Chapter Benetton made a statement that the pictures only call for tolerance, but nevertheless agreed to remove the scandalous picture from the press, apologizing at the same time for insulting the feelings of believers.
Shares his thoughts on a given topic, member of the Guild of Marketers, Managing Partner consulting company Foresight 24, an expert on market trends and consumer behavior.
We can say that brands (especially top brands) are becoming more and more socially active. The fashion world is the first to react to these changes. In 2016, during the fashion show of the fashion house Christian Dior in Paris, its creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri brought models to the catwalk wearing T-shirts with the slogan “We should all be feminists” (“We should all be feminists”). From that moment on, the fashion for defiant slogans for society began to spread around the world, drawing attention to political and election issues, problems with migrants, gender inequality and sexual violence, the economic crisis, racial discrimination, discrimination against sexual minorities, etc.
Was this a mistake, as the company claims? Maybe. But this particular position was too clearly highlighted with the help of the black child-model against the background of other light-skinned children. For H&M, in an unstable situation, a racist scandal could be the beginning of a serious crisis. However, it is unlikely that the company was trying to attract attention and restore its performance with just one sweatshirt in an online store.
Maria Wasserman, media director of the "Conscience" project gives his recommendations on the tactics of behavior that should be followed in the event of a deliberate or unplanned scandalous action, which caused a wide resonance, and caused a "wave of opinions" in relation to the brand.
# 1 Sequence: if you deliberately provoked a scandal, you should not "change your shoes" halfway and start pretending that "oh, this is not us." Respect those who have a core. Like, for example, Aviasales. There is nothing worse than a “floating” position - you run the risk of losing even that small audience of ardent “lawyers” and defenders.
# 3 Compliance of the scandal with the "opportunities" of your target audience. Not everything that is possible in communication with B2C is suitable, for example, for B2B. Not everything that will delight young people (for example, Burger King promotions) is suitable for businesses with clients over 40 years old. The latest scandal with Miroslava Duma - if she did business only in Russia, most likely there would be no scandal. But she is focused on overseas markets, she has a huge number of subscribers from other countries - and there racism is an extremely sensitive topic. There is also a tweet from FC Spartak about the "chocolate" - Russian fans did not see any problematic background in it at all, but the Western media, sensitive to racial issues, staged real ritual dances.
Tatiana Sweet
For several days, passions have been raging in Runet around the #nivkakeframki Reebok advertising campaign. The scandal's pendulum swings, revealing new details. The specialist who approved the scandalous slogans was fired. Now he tells reporters about the ossified society and is looking for a new job.
In the meantime, Reebok has commented on the situation at the official level. Brand spokesman Daniel Sarro said the controversial posters were not approved by management and did not reflect the views and opinions of the company.
The very phrase "Sit on ..." has become a meme and walks on the Internet.
The collection was created solely for your entertainment. We are not promoting anything, we are not humiliating anyone, and we are not looking for hidden meanings in these collections.
"Unhate" (Benetton, 2011)
The Italian clothing brand is known for its thoughtful, vibrant and edgy social media ads. But the campaign "Unhate" ("No to violence") surprised even the fans of the brand, who are accustomed to provocations. On posters political and religious leaders "Lips merged in kisses." And it would be okay for marketers to use real photos from the chronicles! No, it's him - Photoshop Almighty =)
The heroes of the photo were in an awkward position. If the conditional Paris Hilton can get into a legal showdown because of an insult to honor and dignity, then the political leaders are clearly not up to it. Therefore, the White House limited itself to veiled disapproval of the campaign. "It is our policy to discourage the use of the president's name and image for promotional purposes."- said the press secretary of the White House Eric Schultz. Only a representative of the Vatican expressed clear disapproval, saying that he insulted the feelings of believers. Benetton decided not to tease the geese and quickly removed the kissing photo of Pope Benedict XVI and the Egyptian Imam from the campaign. However, it has already scattered across the Internet and created a resonance.
"Ice Cream is our religion" (Antonio Federici, 2010)
The idea of the advertising campaign is simple - ice cream is so tempting that it is impossible to resist. But for its implementation, marketers of the British brand Antonio Federici have clearly chosen the wrong topic. London authorities have banned the posting of posters with a pregnant nun and ambiguous priests looking at each other on the streets of the city ahead of the Pope's visit. Hypanut did not work, although advertisements still appeared in separate magazines.
"Commit to something" (Equinox, 2016)
An advertising campaign for the Equinox fitness club chain with the slogan “Dedicate yourself” is just a treasure trove for scandal lovers. Here and public breastfeeding, and "strong / independent with 40 cats", and a man-narcissist, and a country boy, covered with bees. Judging by the negativity in social networks, the campaign hit someone's complexes hard.
"I flash in #mycalvins" (Calvin Klein, 2016)
This is the first underwear advertisement to be accused of promoting sexual harassment. After a spicy photo of the young actress Clara Christine appeared on the official Calvin Klein account, activists launched a whole campaign against the #mycalvins series. In their opinion, such photos encourage an unhealthy tendency to photograph women under skirts or shorts. Later in the UK they even tried to introduce a law providing for imprisonment for such pictures.
The brand did not follow the lead of the dissatisfied and did not delete the photo. The heroine of the scandalous picture stated that people are simply squeezed in relation to their bodies. True, for her, the scandalous photo session became the peak of her career. After the scandal, world brands did not offer her cooperation, and her career as an actress has not yet worked out.
"Behind closed doors" (Eckhaus Latta, 2017)
At the sight of the new advertising campaign, many thought that the official website of the Eckhaus Latta clothing brand had been hacked and turned into a "strawberry" archive. Because the series of photos "Behind closed doors", dedicated to the new collection, was not just frank, it balanced on the verge of eroticism and frank porn. The creatives covered the naked intimate parts of the models with pixels, but this did not make the photos more modest. Some of the posters feature models of the same sex, and it was these images that caused the most discontent.
The main difficulty for marketers in working with scandalous advertising is to correctly work out almost on the brink of a foul, without causing the loss of a significant proportion of consumers ( customer base) and without falling under the ban. It is not difficult to draw attention to a company or products with the help of scandalous advertising, it is important not to cross the permissible boundaries, as a result of which a massive loss of buyers can occur, partners refusal to work with the company and the termination of contracts by brand representatives. The H&M brand faced such a situation at the beginning of 2018.
The development of scandalous advertising is advisable when the company has interesting idea in response to ongoing outside world events when she wants to draw attention to a problem or common human values or "play" with target audience in the expectation that the latter will support the communication appeal contained in the advertisement.
For decades, well-known brands have resorted to scandals in an attempt to attract attention to themselves. This tool is most often used by:
- brands in the clothing, cosmetics and accessories market (Benetton, Tom Ford, Yves Saint Laurent, Levi "s, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, etc.);
- car brands (Mercedes, Ford, Toyota, Opel, etc.);
- public organizations and the state - social advertisement(for example, the anti-smoking campaign of the BDDP & FILS agency, advertising against talking on the phone while driving and domestic violence, etc.).
In Russia, scandalous advertising is often found in small businesses (in local markets), however, despite the viral effect, such projects, as a rule, made on the knee, are rather provocative or shocking. For example, signs of shops and cafes with "interesting" names, shocking outdoor advertising. Evgeny Chichvarkin and his Euroset can be called a kind of founder of scandalous advertising in Russia.
Ads for fast food chains are predominantly provocative and challenge competitors in the years of struggles between these giants. Similar advertising wars are constantly fought between Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, as well as automakers.
An example of a provocative approach is the ad for the Torro Grill Steakhouse, which bills itself as the "first affordable stack house."
To promote food products, scandalous advertising is less typical than non-food markets, however, here in Lately manufacturers make non-standard moves.
So, one of the first scandalous advertisements on the market meat products was the outdoor advertisement of the Malakhovsky meat processing plant (Fig. 6), banned in 2009 by the government of St. Petersburg due to inconsistency with paragraph 6 of Article 5 federal law"About advertising" (use of obscene and offensive images).
Due to the lack of numerous successful (and not so) Russian and foreign cases, manufacturers are looking for their own ways of working with consumers through scandalous and provocative advertising. One of bad examples that play on sexual overtones and gender differences, which are actively used in scandalous advertising of fashion brands.
In 2018, an advertisement for the Dymov company appeared on the market. in social networks in the wake of the scandal surrounding the H&M brand, in whose online store a sweatshirt with the words "Coolest Monkey in the Jungle" was revealed, shown by a black boy, the only one among the rest of the fair-skinned child models. Whether this was a planned action or a mistake of marketers is unknown. However, this greatly influenced the financial performance and stability of the company, which is already going through hard times.
On the VKontakte network, the post received only 83 likes, two reposts and 15 comments with more than 17,000 views and 4234 subscribers (data as of March 11, 2018). We can say that the manufacturer made an attempt to play on an event that is relevant for society, however, given the fact that the topic of racism in Russia is practically not a painful one, he did not receive much response. Subscribers reacted poorly to the posts, the number of views is less than that of the traditional posts of the Dymov company, which, by the way, works quite effectively on social networks ().
Attempts by manufacturers to “play” with the target audience at the level of provocation or the formation of an associative connection suggest that competition in a mature meat market leads industry participants to the need to look for non-standard advertising moves.
One of the most common ways of working with the target audience is traditionally by inviting media people. With a strong positive “star” brand, this always plays into the hands of the manufacturer, however, if the brand's advertising person himself gets into an unpleasant story, even if it has nothing to do with the manufacturer, it always negatively affects his brand. "Myasnitsky Ryad" got into such a situation, the main hero of the commercials of which is Dmitry Dyuzhev.
Less resonance was caused by the advertisement of the sausage "Good Deed", which was advertised in 2016 by Grigory Leps and Timati. It is also made in a provocative manner and plays up the situation with food smuggling after the imposition of sanctions. Questions were raised not only by the plot of the video, but also by the expediency of the singers' participation in the advertisement. It is interesting that today it is almost impossible to find it on the Internet: it has been removed on almost all sites where it was previously presented. However, objectively speaking, this advertisement was not scandalous, she played up the current situation for the country, and also showed the financial capabilities of the company, which was able to invite two famous pop performers. In other words, despite the mention of product characteristics, advertising was more of an image character.
Summing up, we can draw the following conclusion. On the meat market, scandalous and provocative advertising does not take root for the reason that consumers have less emotional attachment to food products than to non-food products, where scandals can cause a significant resonance. As the analysis shows, scandalous advertising is a tool of large brands that have their own public position, deliberately go for a serious provocation, attract attention and delay it from competitors for a while. For the segment of meat products and food products in general, advertising based on product characteristics (quality, composition, price) and consumption situation is more suitable, preferably played with humor. In addition, if a company chooses "stars" to advertise, it is important not to make a mistake so that the shaky reputation of the media person does not lead to a decrease in brand sales.
Ph.D., member of the Guild of Marketers,
managing partner of a consulting company "Foresight 24",
expert on market trends and consumer behavior (project "Laboratory of trends").
Mar 16 ‘18
Sometimes ad bans work even more to promote a brand than the campaign itself. Yesterday, the British Advertising Standards Committee (ASA) banned photo ads for the Miu Miu brand, calling it "irresponsible." The photographs with the 14-year-old actress Hayley Steinfeld were not liked by the ASA representatives because the girl is depicted in a dangerous situation: with a sad face, almost crying, she sits on rusty railroad tracks. We bring to your attention ten advertising images that outraged the public, but due to the scandals, they were able to promote the advertised brand, perhaps even more than originally thought.
(10 photos total)
source: slon.ru
1. The Pope kisses the imam. The latest scandalous snapshot of the Benetton clothing brand. Customer - Benetton Group.
2. A photo depicting 17-year-old actress Dakota Fanning seemed indecent to the public. Customer - Marc Jacobs.
3. 14-year-old actress Hayley Steinfeld waiting for the train. The customer is the youth brand Miu Miu from Prada.
5. Parents were concerned that this poster of the film Last Exorcism, featuring a girl who may have been abused, was posted on buses, in cinemas and in free magazines about.
6. The average office worker's Friday dream. Advertising of a British hotel chain. Customer - Virgin Holidays.
8. The Sydney Summer Olympics were held in 2000. For the occasion, the Benetton Group have come up with their own original logo.
9. The advertisers just wanted to play on words, calling the ad Killer Heels. And they were accused by the public of promoting violence and sexism. Nevertheless, the picture has been published in almost all the leading publications in the UK and has sold several billions. The customer is NMA.
10. The photo depicting the cemetery of the soldiers who died during the First World War reminds: we are all equal. The ad was released in 1991 during the Gulf War.
