What we see in advertisements is just selling fake dreams, fake things, this impossible beauty. I think we have to be honest. Yeah, this is an ad, we’re selling shoes. But it’s in an interesting way, and people smile.– Nicola Formichetti, creative director, Diesel
Can people not wearing clothes actually sell clothes?
Diesel‘s creative director, Nicola Formichetti, has had a peek at your browser history. He knows where you really spend your time, and now he’s going to make sure you’re seeing ads for his clothing while you’re there.
Of course, the majority of people who are regular visitors to the sites Formichetti is targeting, Tinder, Grindr, PornHub, and YouTube, actively deny that they have ever been there. Yet, somehow, PornHub is the 66th most visited website in the world. People on Tinder swipe left or right 1.4 billion times a day. Grindr has 7 million users. Clearly, someone is visiting these websites and they’re visiting them often. But, even with the high traffic numbers, does it make sense to sell underwear next to ads for penis enlargement scams?
“We’re a sexy brand. To support the launch of our underwear line, we’re going to be the first brand to ever advertise on Grindr and we’re the first fashion brand to be working with Pornhub, too. The message is simple: before you jerk off look at this,” Formichetti says with a wink. I don’t think I want to know how hands on Formichetti was with this research. Is the natural marriage of fashion and advertising really porn?
Okay, before we get too terribly upset and all the prudes on the planet swear they’ll never buy Diesel, let’s do a reality check. Number one, if you are truly offended, chances are pretty good you aren’t a Diesel customer anyway. “We’re not scared of these places, we’re not high fashion. We are street,” Formichetti says, and he’s right. Diesel sells denim, not silk.
Second, only one set of underwear ads is going to run on the aforementioned websites. The remainder of the campaign can be seen in all the typical places. Formichetti is very much aware of what’s going on in the digital world, though, and is very comfortable using it to the brand’s advantage. If he sees a website capturing an obscene number of viewers, chances are he’s going to put an ad there.
Third, he’s neither the first nor the only designer to make a connection between fashion and adult material. Remember the pole dancers at Alexander Wang‘s show last season? And just recently, JW Anderson, not typically considered the sexiest brand on the planet, streamed its menswear show on Grindr to the largest online audience the brand has ever seen. Fashion is taking a very sexy turn that may well challenge Tom Ford’s Gucci ads for raw sex appeal. Fashion ads have long been criticized by more conservative segments of society as being porn, so why not embrace it?
Luxury brands have struggled this past year and there’s not a brand in the industry that hasn’t considered what it might have to do to turn sales around. Some are switching creative directors. Others are swapping ad agencies. Still others are employing runway gimmicks and media tie-ins to garner attention. That Formichetti would follow the digital trail to adult-oriented websites fits with the “try anything” attitude currently dogging designers.
Once again, Formichetti tries to explain his reasoning. “I want to portray the world we live in today, and the people in it – so it’s very important that we have different genders, body types, colours, that’s our norm. And then we all live through the phone and the computer, so I wanted to be honest about that.”
Be sure, every other designer is gong to be watching to see whether the porn approach works. If it does, we may just see clothing ads next to naked people on a more regular basis.
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