Porn within advertising, advertising within porn [part three]
Terry Richardson has been defined as the “magazine world's Marquis de Sade,” and his work has been labeled as “notably raw, direct, and amateurish, though he is not an amateur.” In his own website he is described as “one of the most prolific and compelling photographers of his generation. Known for his uncanny ability to cut to the raw essence of whomever appears before his lens.” This is precisely what he accomplishes with his latest campaign for Lee Jeans in Australia.
Lee Jeans, The Terry Richardson Campaign, brings to the table advertising that is not quite like advertising. With a stronger focus on the photographer and what he represents, this campaign conveys a level of honesty that is extremely healthy these days when advertising per se is not on its brightest moment.
Lee is opening the door for people to come in and participate on the grounds that everybody knows that it’s advertising. So why not just be open, make it about the process of creating these pictures as much as about the pictures themselves, bluntly stating that in this case the brand is almost donating the space so art and fashion substitute plain advertising storytelling. At the opposite end is Calvin Klein’s underwear campaign (widely criticized mostly for the wrong reasons), which features models posing naturally, pretending that they are just there, that it is not an ad.
Chuck Porter (from Crispin Porter + Bogusky) shared some interesting insights at the AAAA’s Account Planning conference in Miami that we believe are relevant in the context of evaluating this campaign:
Popular culture wants to change. Anything that aids this process will be welcomed.
Beware of metaphors. If you have something interesting to say, say it.
They know it's advertising. So let them in on the joke.
Get really, really close to the audience. He used the example of a few pseudo porn films that they produced for Virgin Atlantic a few years ago targeting frequent travelers (London-New York) whom stayed in luxury hotels and tended to browse through porn with certain frequency…
Which lead us to: Turn off the political correctness filter.
Raw, honest, bizarre, shocking, amusing, not ordinary. These are values that can amplify the performance of almost any brand targeting modern, young-spirited people in the year 2006. This campaign is certainly delivering those values on behalf of Lee Jeans and we wish them all the best just for trying.
