Diesel: Stupidly creative or just plain stupid?

Diesel, the well known Jeans manufacturer has dived into 2010 with a new message for its admirers and onlookers. Be Stupid.

Campaigns like this always intrigue me. Is it a little stroke of creative genius that gets bods like me talking about it, or is it… well… just stupid?

For me, I like things that capture my attention because they are ‘different’. If we always do what we’ve always done, frankly the world (and our individual lives) would become very boring in a short amount of time. For this reason I quite like Be Stupid. The fashion industry does have a habit of disappearing up its own backside sometimes, using imagery of pencil thin glamour pus’s, scowling at a camera, with no message, just the designers brand identity. Sometimes thats enough, but I for one quite like being made to think… so long as its easy enough to come to the right conclusion, or the conclusion the campaign is meant to help you arrive at. I think we’ve all been in that position where you look at something and think to yourself “I just dont get it”.

According to Diesel, being stupid is basically being brave, being individual… doing something you might not normarily do. I guess this campaign is summed up with their creative for this. Its very different from any approach they’ve taken before. You cannot miss it, it leaps out at you, whilst ensuring you still see product and the brand. The approach to the advertising is playful… cheeky I guess, which is the tone of voice the brand wants their customers or potential customers to ‘get’. It may just be that this approach will diversify their customer base because it appeals to a different bunch of ‘crazy’ denim buyers, whilst retaining the existing customer base who buy into the brands comfort, quality and stature.

I dont doubt there will be many that will find it easier to knock this brave approach, probably because its scares them a little. They have probably always bought their Jeans from Next and will continue to do so… ‘because they fit right’. If thats the case then fair enough, but I like the fact this is just a little daring.

It could just be the type of personality the fashion market needs.

I think its fair to say that time will prove how successful this turns out to be. Successful campaigns have to evolve and I think this is a prime case in point. This could start to get a little tiresome if not enough humour and variety is brought into it.

I’d like to think the guys at Anomaly will ‘go’, and ‘be’ Stupid and give this the crazy marketing legs it needs to have some longevity.