No stranger to getting under the skins of the decency police, Abercrombie & Fitch might once again be in hot water thanks to a new poster campaign spotted in San Francisco. Smells like a fake. But in these days of corporate black ops,is it?
Note by Dabitch: The post at Photopia clearly states that the 'ads' were found in "the window of an abandoned store" in San Fransicso, which does not make it an outdoor campaign as some other adsites have stated. If you look carefully at the obviously photocopied 'posters' there is a contact email at the bottom right. All I can make out is: its......@yahoo.com - probably the email of the "artist" who made this statement. Repeat after me, not a real campaign. Cheers.
update ABercrombie and Fitch have sent C&D letters to photopia who had to take down their photos of the street art in question
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In a way it has been done, a few years back when NYC adgrunt EricR tipped us to Nissan's "Urban" Fakeout, where all these streetposters would be "vandalized" by some spraypainting fiend by the moniker ElectricMoyo.com. Of course, ElectricMojo was just another part of the Nissan campaign.
Then there was the cool Nike vandalized bus stops recently, Is it advertising or is it graffiti? which is simlar and amusing, and Levis 501 used the street art language to make a full street art campaign Levi's 501 - ads as graffiti part two!, but thats using the street art language as the style of advertising..... And maybe that's not exactly what you meant? Close though, right?
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Permalinknah.. they don't know who I am, and I haven't posted them anywhere (excepted allegedly in certain public locations).
Of course, the fact that they're now interested and incensed means that it must go further. I mean, to quote my e-mail from photopia, "we can't stop now, just when it's getting fun."
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PermalinkHey, so did you get a C&D letter from the not-so friendly abercrombie guys yet? Photopia did after all. :)
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PermalinkIt is... it's my e-mail. I created the pictures.
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PermalinkWell spotted.. I think that is the right email.
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PermalinkThe e-mail actually reads itseasyifyouthink@yahoo.com.
I came up with it because the revelation I had connecting the dots between A&F and the Hitler Youth was such a "duh" moment, that well.. you can figure out the rest.
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PermalinkHey, here's an idea. Flash forward 5 or 10 years. Near future. People are so saturated with all the virally, bzzzagenty, who-knows-whoto-trust-anymore stuff, they actually long for the days when ads were just ads.
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PermalinkYes. And at what point does this affect the effectiveness of it? In a way it reflects the increase in suspiciousness from all angles in everything from politics to whether Splenda is made from sugar. There's a total bombardment of these tactics that are going to make it harder for anyone to trust anyone else. And with advertising already so distrusted, it doesn't seem like it is the right path for the business to take.
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PermalinkYep, you'e right Caff, the Napster one crossed my mind as well, that's a good example too.
Isn't it quite scary though? Not that we assume stuff (a lot of people assume too much trust me), but that like you say - we can't assume anything any more. What with people chatting us up in bars just to namedrop a mineral water, with pre-teen girls sleep over parties actually being focus groups, with actual fake ads and ads made by fans (that apple one), with teasers being ten million times as cryptic as they ever were just to cut through the clutter, with average Joe's cynism radar turned up to the max... Yeah, it's all making me a bit dizzy to be honest.
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PermalinkSure, it's possible. Anything is possible. :)
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PermalinkThere was also that Napster stunt a few years ago too when it came back legit.
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PermalinkThat's exactly what I meant. Great examples. I guess what bugs me is that so many of us seem ready to assume stuff and you can't assume anything.
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PermalinkSome really eagle-eyed people at Photopia think that the line underneath the posters reads: "Property of youthink@yahoo.com"... and if you squint, it looks like they may be right!
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PermalinkWhat old man's blog would that be? Again, I did not say this crap was anything but what everyone else here says it is. But am I open to the possibility that if a brand wanted to do something like this, it could? Yes, I'm open to that. Sorry.
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PermalinkThats true. A lot of culture jamming stuff is very slick. But my question again, does it HAVE to be? Could a company inject a campaign into the culture that's purposefully designed to look like shit. No one is saying this is what indeed happened. But can't we at least agree that it's possible?
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PermalinkYeah, I've seen culture jamming before. So let me ask you this. What if a company wanted to do a guerilla campaign that looked like culture jamming only it was just the opposite? That's not possible? Please understand, you guys. I know it's not real. But just as an intellectual exercise, do you not think it's possible? Even if only in theory?
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PermalinkAbercrombie & Fitch might be "controversial" but they aren't the Izzue brand who decorated their shop with Nazi symbols. A Photocopied small "poster" glued to a wall is street art or 'culture jamming' as the hipster adbuster people call it, not "subversive" advertising, you really need to get out more and stop reading old mens blogs if you thought any different.
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Permalinkum, some Germans that is. No broad sweeping statements meant there.
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PermalinkTalk about gulliable. No company, not even A&F, would be so stupid to create such a thing. There's a massive, massive difference between using images that have "adult situations" and making light of a very evil period in history that the Germans don't even like to look back on and pretend never happened. This is obviously fake and a comment on the Aryan-like models that populate their controversial catelogues.
And if you take a look at "culture jamming" ads, they are usually extremely high quality production. Not black and white crappy photocopies.
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PermalinkDepends on the idea, doesn't it?
I still don't see how anyone would even for a second beleive those ads to be real. Have you not seen culture jamming before?
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PermalinkIf one were to truly do a steathy campaign, wouldn't you want it to look awful? Look as amaturish and as much the handiwork of the culture-jam crowd?
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PermalinkMy guess is that after the 60 minutes "exposé" last year about A&F being so dead set on only hirering white folk, some creative person decided to make these photocopied posters. :)
Oh, and by "some other adsites have stated" I didn't mean your adblog but Adrants. Adrants has now posted that abercrombie & fitch deny involvement. I'm really quite stunned that anyone thought those bad and obvious photocopies were real. Just how little do you think of us poor slaving art directors anyway? ;))
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PermalinkAs I said. smells like a fake. No doubt IS a fake. On the face of it. I guess what I'm wondering is, is there at least the possibilty that there might indeed be a connection, shadowy though that connection might be? Only reason I even ask is that it feels possible in the case of this particular brand.
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