How are we all feeling about the new French Connection campaign?
Since my boyfriend started working as a junior creative at ad agency Adam and Eve I've found myself naturally analysing adverts in terms of their originality and creative quirkiness, which is why I'm really enjoying the new French Connection 'For Woman' / 'For Man' campaign.
Not everyone feels the same way (I believe one colleague used the word 'desperate' to describe it), but I think it's a pretty brave attempt by the brand to push their image in a totally new direction. You don't see many highstreet labels doing anything anywhere near as odd and interesting as this...
'The Man; a rugged, bearded and outspoken character who tells our customer how to dress. He has the physique of a bare-knuckle boxer, the brain of Voltaire and a discerning eye. Other men can learn much from him'
'The Woman is understated yet sexy. Her description is brief, as we know little of her. She is beautiful, enchanting, capricious and mystifying. We don't even catch her name'
The campaign was masterminded by Fallon London (the agency behind that Cadburys gorilla ad we all banged on about so much) who told me 'The overall brief was to launch the French Connection spring collection with a nod to the style and playfulness of the brand's original DNA'. Hence 'Franglais' lines like 'he knows not what sequins is' (check me out with my adopted knowledge of ad-land terminology).
Stephen Marks, founder and chairman of French Connection, hopes the love it or hate it buzz around the ads will translate to sales: 'We believe we have created an impactful and intelligent campaign which we hope will encourage talk-ability amongst our loyal customers and fashion opinion formers worldwide'...jobs a good'un Stephen.



I think it's sweet, and shakes off the image I've always had of FC as being a bit too sophisticated that it could almost border on snooty. Sure, this is a bit try-hard, but I like it for being youthful and silly.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate their attempt at a rebranding and am quite smitten with the new campaign. It will be interesting to see if the image carried by the ads is actually translated in store and if the designs are changing.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a post about this last week if you want the longer version!
http://www.mademoisellerobot.com/2010/02/french-connection-beautiful-rebranding.html
I found your blog through LLG, and I am really enjoying reading it, thank you.
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That ad is pretty brilliant... The voice-over is amazing, and creates this incredible atmosphere, not necessarily because of his accent but the voice in itself. The ad really made me want to check out French Connection, simply because I love how different it is from all other ads.
ReplyDeletesimply fabulous....
ReplyDeleteand unique!
I do think this idea of "THE MAN" as the anthesis of the "metrosexual" is a bit, well, 3 years ago and not very original any more.. although maybe it will still work for their low-mid end of the market segement?
ReplyDeleteGreat new direction. I love it also.
ReplyDeleteHey Esme,
ReplyDeleteYou know how much I love this campaign (and this blog post!) but after seeing Antoni & Alison's AW10 presentation I have been inspired to write a blog about this over on Uplift. Really enjoying this exploration around the representation of female identity in both examples...
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Love this french publicity, and the picture is very well done! the dress is perfect and the detail of the mirrow is so cool!
ReplyDeletecool blog!
ReplyDeletehi friends! have a nice day!
ReplyDeleteI love the publicity!
ReplyDeleteAmazing idea! I love the french publicity! and the photo is very well done! and the detail of the mirrow looks very nice!
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