While most fashion brands choose to advertise their garments on highly-paid models or on a celebrity spokesperson, Dickie’s has a very different idea of what exactly is “effective advertising”. Instead of stressing the trendiness or the sexiness of their “Original 874” jeans, Dickie’s points out their durability and value, by featuring two motorcyclists revving their engines, trying to tear apart the jeans.
According to the ad, no such luck. Throughout the 90-year run of the company, Dickie’s has become a hit with mechanics, factory workers, and skateboarders, and even produced
uniforms for soldiers during WWII. At a time when clothing prices are dangerously close to skyrocketing, Dickie’s set out to promote awareness of the brand by making this ad the first they have done with an advertising agency. It was shot with 16-millimeter film to create an authentic look.
So why go back to the basics? Is there something to be learned from the Dickies’s fairly minimalist campaign? The company claims that a product is worth buying if it is genuine. They’re not claiming to the cutting edge of style, just versatile and durable -- a motto that kept the company successful for years.
“We wanted to show something that is honest, real, and authentic,” Rich Silverstein, co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein said. “People no longer want the flavor of the day.” [NYT]
IZABELLA ZAYDENBERG
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