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Today both Adfreak and Marketing.FM are reporting and commenting on a fake ad published on a Swiss newspaper on it’s latest issue. Here’s a quick wrap-up on what happened (quoting Marketing.FM):
A man pretending to represent Gucci placed an ad in a Zurich newspaper, sending the $50,000 bill to the fashion giant. The ad eventually ran because it was found out too late that it was a fake…
And this is the AD:
Such amusing news, really… But apart from it being amusing, in my opinion it’s as innocent and unoffensive as a baby. Gucci spent $0.00 dollars on this Ad, and is getting quite some attention. The (possible) backlash might happen by a deteriorating brand, which I really doubt will happen. The ad is well done, it follow a certain design pattern from many other Gucci ad’s, it is “luxurious” in a way, etc. I don’t think much harm will come their way because of it.
Something really curious, though, is the fact that if we turn the tables around and look at it as why this might have happened (the cause), my only idea is that Gucci has managed to to an excellent job positioning themselves as a leading brand that makes people (regular folks, like you and me) to want to be an explicit part of the brand, not only a user. Aspirational to the top!
What do you think?
I think you are spot on. The only thing this says is that people want to be like the ads in Gucci – pretty much the whole point of the ads in the first place. (Well that and selling products and an image)
I doubt anyone could quantify anything bad from this situation.