Fashion fades, style is eternal

FCUK was responsible for launching this poster advertisement in Ireland to strengthen its brand image, which eventually received several complaints for being offensive. The poster featured two women in a fighting position with the companying text, Fashion V Style.


The complaints alleged that the advertisement was promoting acts of violence and that the advertisement has used a mixture of sex and violence to show the shock effect of female violence to promote their products.


                      


The advertisers deffended theirselfs by saying that their intention was to highlight a symbolic conflict between style and fashion in and not to cause alarm. They also said that the concept of the advertisement is bassed on a famous Yves Saint Laurent quote: Fashion fades, Style is eternal.


The complaint committee of the advertisement watchdog expressed some concerns, but they did not consider that the advertisement was in breach of the code and did not support the complaints.


It reminded advertisers that approval from CAP in the UK in the UK ( GLB in The Netherlands) does not mean that advertisements are pleasant to see. What is important is what the consumers remember about the brand.


It seems that more and more fashion houses are using shocking ads to alert consumers. This is probably because there is much competition and the advertisers believe that even bad publicity, is publicity. Very occasionally this can work well for a brand, but usually is not the case.


What is your opinion on this campaign? Feel free to leave comments.