As many of us know Diesel is a fast-fashion clothing company, like H&M or Forever 21, and targets the young adult age group as their main consumer base. This age group is all about trying to fit in with society with fashionable clothes, energetic personalities, and fun friends to hang out with. However, during all of this they are trying to find jobs, apartments, boyfriends/girlfriends, cars, etc. All of these things cause self reflection and leads people to think how able they are to obtain all of these things themselves, how they are perceived by others, and how they present themselves to the world as a smart, functioning piece to society. Diesel, however, did not like the idea of having to be “smart” in order to succeed in the world so they came out with a line of “be stupid” ads in order to counteract the social stigma of being smart and presentable and lead their target age group to be more daring and take chances in life. This sounds like an awesome approach, right?
How about now? For some reason they thought that by putting nearly naked men and women in compromising, if not demeaning, positions would teach young adults to “take risks”. Yeah right! The ad to the left essentially says if you’re stupid, yeah you can spend time with your boss, but you’ll have to be having sex with him/her. While the ad to the right says if you’re stupid you’ll care less and prance around in your skivvies. It really gives an entire new meaning to “F the police”.
PLEASE
TELL ME
HOW OR WHY
THIS IS EFFECTIVE???????
Now we can say the pathos of the ad is there. Young adults these days are all about rebelling and going against the grain. They want to fight society’s standards and show the world that the norm just is not good enough any more, that in fact it is frowned upon. Young adults can directly empathize with the “stick it to the man” nature of these ads.
Ethos can be here as well. Diesel is a worldwide brand with stores in every continent (except Antarctica of course). They often hold shows at the big four fashion weeks in New York City, London, Paris, and Milan. They have had a Sims game. They are literally all over the world, so if a brand that claims such large of a stake in worldwide retail, why wouldn’t you listen to a campaign that they create? They obviously know what they’re doing.
But now for the logos. I just don’t think it’s there. Some people may think this ad is awesome, but I just think it hypersexualizes young adults and shows them to be rebellious trouble makers with no regard for themselves or others. They could have figured out an alternative way to tell young adults to defy the norm without telling them to take off their clothes and essentially wreak havoc all over the city.
I would give this a B- for effort. They tried to send a good message to young adults to not take being smart so seriously, but by telling them to strip down and disrespect themselves and others, it just did not make any sense to me at all. Nice try, Diesel. Maybe next time…
-Lauhrinse
Badman Robert James says
I considered doing this ad campaign, but I didn’t want to touch it with a 10 and a half foot pole. Way to go, being unashamed of this. I think you’re very right about your analysis, and I like the way you used the word hypersexualizes. I haven’t seen it in writing before, but I think you chose the most accurate word to say what you mean. Props.
Angelica says
I would agree on the B- for effort. If I saw these ads in real life, I would just feel uncomfortable and probably walk away because I wouldn’t want anyone to see me looking at them. That’s definitely not the goal! Ineffective at best.