Disobeying Woody
Google “American Apparel” + “Woody Allen” today and you will see at least 14,000 results, multiply that by a (very low) estimate of 10,000 views per week for the average blog and marvel at the approximately 140,000,000 page views generated by the recent two-billboard campaign (New York, LA) by the hipster-approved apparel brand. Try to actually buy that many impressions at an average CPM on $12 and you would have to spend around $1.6 million.
Enough with the math. Simple common sense might be enough to ratify the fact that the campaign had all the ingredients to be a success from many angles. From my personal point of view I was just happy to see Woody in a guerrilla-style billboard, the blown out screen shot of Annie Hall with its visible washed-out grain communicated a clandestine feeling that was validated with the mysterious disappearance of the ads a couple of weeks later.
There are many questions around the legality of the campaign, almost every media outlet speculates on whether or not the brand had any approval to use the image. Regardless of how kosher it was (always debatable), this is an example of how brands that are willing (and able) to take educated risks, informed by a true connection with their audience, are capable to spark serious interaction among people via crafting communications that, beyond advertising, become a topic of conversation with the power of shaping opinion and behavior.
