SYDNEY: Diesel Australia has followed recent controversy over its ‘Be Stupid’ campaign with an expletive laden spring/summer 2011 offer.
The global campaign, titled “Diesel Island”, will commence full roll out from next week with in-store and print advertising, as well as posters distributed across Sydney and Melbourne. Supertram advertising is also confirmed to go live in September, and the campaign is expected to run until November this year.
The creative, which will appear in key fashion magazines including Russh, Grazia, Harpers, GQ, Men’s Style and Vogue, was conceived by global advertising agency Santo and documents the first “Diesel Island pioneers”, scantily clad in Diesel apparel, with one of the ads announcing that “Diesel Island” is “The least fucked up country in the world”.
Following on from its previous campaign, “Be Stupid”, which landed the label in hot water with the Outdoor Media Association (OMA) and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA ) for breaching the Code of Ethics, Diesel is again expecting to irk the ad standards bureaus with the brazen tagline, according to Brand Collective marketing manager Leanne Wall.
“‘Diesel Island’ is a follow on from Diesel’s previous campaign ‘Be Stupid’ which encouraged consumers to take risks and move beyond the smart and sensible,” she said. “In light of the increase in pollution, wars and corruption in the world, and closer to home with the carbon tax debate, live cattle export and asylum seekers, Diesel decided the world is fucked up, so it had a stupid idea of creating a country where people can make their own rules and live a unique and creative way of life.”
Wall said the campaign, which caused waves when it launched in Europe earlier this year, has already experienced some resistance in Australia.
“Initially when artwork was sent through to fashion magazines the editors and editorial team rejected the artwork on the basis it had ‘fuck’ in it,” she said. “We think it will definitely generate discussion here. Diesel Island is about creating a message that resonates with people and therefore they themselves can enter into discussion around why the world is ‘fucked’ or why Australian politics is ‘fucked’, and so on. Diesel is a brand that is provocative, a brand that likes to cross boundaries, and with ‘Diesel Island’ we want people to embrace the message of the campaign and to have fun with it.”
Daniela Aroche