Diesel

Diesel print ad which ran last year promoting Diesel’s range of clothing (specifically jeans).

This ad is an unusual choice for me, as although I have worked as a copywriter in the past, I much prefer ads with strong visuals. Also I am of the opinion that all ads should include people (this would be the unique selling point of my agency, were I to found one). It is my belief that if you add the human form to any advertisement it instantly increases the awareness levels (I have no evidence to support this, it’s just my own irrational opinion).

But to get back to Diesel, I can see what the campaign was trying to do.

There are a number of problems related to selling premium priced fashion to men (I am guessing that the key target of this campaign is men). There is always the suspicion among purchasers that an interest in fashion is unmanly. There is also the far worse fear that buying a particular fashion brand will unwittingly identify you as light-weight, trivial or camp.

This ad is double page, stark black and white, text in monotype placard bold.

This ad is not actually telling people to be stupid (which would be a suicidal strategy). It is aimed at people who are intelligent enough to appreciate what an expensive fashion brand can do for them, but are wary of exposing themselves to ridicule by investing in clothes that could be interpreted as flippant or over-priced. Therefore by making stupidity a key brand attribute Diesel are telling purchasers that the accusation of stupidity has been deflected and dealt with.

The copy also relates to a deep-seated prejudice in the United Kingdom that sees the “working class” as stupid. Coming from an East End family, I know that this is not true, but the idea persists that people who are simply uneducated are somehow also “stupid”. In parallel with this prejudice the male working class is admired for qualities of manliness and masculinity, and “stupid” becomes a shorthand way of conveying this.

“Smart may have the brains but stupid has the balls”. This line of copy opposes images of over-educated weedy egg-heads with a colloquial reference to a crucial part of the male reproductive organs. Purchasers of Diesel products are probably going to be fairly well educated (usually you don’t get high disposable incomes without at least a university degree and a desk job) but they may well feel inadequate in terms of their masculinity and the ad is telling these people that they can compensate for their inadequacy by buying a pair of Diesel jeans.

On the whole this ad represents a high-risk strategy (in my opinion). Not because it will not work (the logic is sound). It is high-risk because the client may not understand it, the client’s colleagues will not understand it, and there will be lots of opinions and feedback from people who are not the target audience but who will feel the need to criticize the use of the word “stupid”.

The ad agency was Anomaly.



Not sure if Anomaly were involved with the ads for Diesel fragrance but there seems to be a continuity.

The bottle design is of a clenched fist wearing “chav” jewelry.

The TV commercial features Sam Way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgOcoVpz1Jo&feature=relmfu