A
Desire for Individuality (Adidas “Originals Campaign)
We live in a consumerist world. Naomi
Klein’s No Logo highlights this and
puts a spotlight on how we are manipulated into buying into a branded lifestyle
that is portrayed to us everyday. This essay
will be concentrating on the massive market of the youth culture and how
companies have changed their whole marketing strategies to tap into this
culture.
“Their parents might have gone to
Bargain Basement, but kids, it turned out, were still willing to pay up to fit
in” (Klein, 2005, p. 68). This is how Naomi Klein describes the youth culture
and their spending habits. There is a huge pressure for teens to fit in and the
way of doing this seems to be to pay through the nose for branded commodities. This
was highlighted when during a recession the companies to bring in money were
“beer, soft drinks, fast food and sneakers” (Klein, 2005, p.68). “This was not
the time for selling Tide and Snuggle to Housewives – it was time for beaming
MTV, Nike, Hilfiger, Microsoft and Wired to global teens and their over grown
imitators.” (Klein, 2005, p.68). The advertisements put out were directed at
the initial audience of the older market effectively, however they soon
realized they were just focused on the wrong crowd. A plague of advertisements aiming at teens
and young adults followed, attempting to become the next brand to sweep through
high-schools’ ‘popular’ society. This
also gave birth to stereotyping and a huge pressure to fit in which just fueled
the advertising even more.
“Am I cool? Became the deeply dull and
all-consuming question of every moment.” (Klein, 2005, p. 69). How can “cool”
be defined? Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of
the Leisure Class (1899) describes the fashion movement changing because of
the class divide. The upper classes or the flaneurs
(Gentlemen of Leisure) liked to differentiate themselves from the working class
by acting and dressing differently. This lead on to the Trickle down Theory thought up by Georg Simmel whereby fashion is
determined by the upper class which then becomes desirable and seen as a symbol
of wealth. Rip offs are produced so the lower-class can afford to have a
similar image which then makes the current fashion undesirable for the upper-class
resulting in the birth of fashion as we know it today, fast and changeable.
This can be
applied to fashion today and a select chosen few who set the trends. Elise
Decoteau described teen shoppers “they run in packs. If you sell one, you sell
to everyone in their class and everyone in their school.” (Klein,
2005, p.68) Thus proving there is a social hierarchy
and the “trickle down effects” still applies to today. “Retain the social
standing they desire, perform their social obligations and protect their self-esteem”
(Consuming Life 2008, p55) This supports No
Logo as it argues that advertisements almost force “senseless consumer
objects rather than basic necessities in order to deflect total social
humiliation” (Consuming Life 2008, p55). This very much applies to the youth
culture and how you are accepted as a person. Big companies saw the advantages
of the trend setters and the power they hold over what people buy next. Corporations
realized that there workforce is much older than target audience they are
planning on exploiting so an abundance of young workers would be hired helping
to bring companies to a level of cool making brands more appealing to youths
and relating to there society.
These young
employees are hired to keep companies in the loop from this ever-changing
fashion scene. “What is cool one week is ridiculously past in the next.” (The
Rebel Sell, 2005 p195). Finding the next ‘cool’ trend isn’t easy because “you
have know idea what to look for” (The Rebel Sell, 2005 p195). To youths
“coolhunting”, “is to look for cool people” (The Rebel Sell, Heath & Potter 2005 p195) to copy basically.
Using the Adidas
brand as an example to help validity what No Logo is putting across about
brands using these ‘cool people’ to life companies into the youth market. Adidas was
founded in 1948 by Adolf
"Adi" Dassler. A sports wear
brand struggling to make a huge impact on the sporting world compared to Nike,
Puma and Reebok. Run-DMC the rap group had a huge fan base copying their style
and using them as there ‘cool people’ to follow as trend setters. The group “Breathed
new life into Adidas products with their hit single “My Adidas.” (Klein,
2005, p.74) The song is a homage to the groups love for Adidas clothing and
sneakers, this was a huge bonus for the brand as a famous group made a song
basically advertising to their fans to buy Adidas.
The record label for the group Def Jam Records
quickly realized the huge amount of advertising Run-DMC actually did for Adidas
and decided to attempt to make profit from this promotion. Adidas unconvinced
about the connotations Rap Music had and if been associated with it was
potentially too controversial. Some Adidas executives went to a concert they
were performing. During the song My
Adidas “one of the members yelled out, “Okay, everybody in the house, rock
your Adidas!” and three thousand pairs of sneakers shot in the air.” (Klein,
2005, p.74) This made it clear the power this group had over its fan base and
pretty soon after this Run-DMC had there own sneaker range produced by Adidas.
This just proves the style of a select few is imitated and highly
commercialized.
The company grew quickly in the sports but during 1990s, Adidas divided the brand into two main
groups with separate selling focus’: Adidas Performance was designed to maintain their
devotion to the athlete as this is what the company was founded on but they
realised there was a broader scope and ventured in the fashion world creating, Adidas Originals. That was designed to concentration on fashion and
life-style of the non-athletic consumer. "Impossible
is Nothing" is
the current mainstream marketing slogan
for Adidas.
In this constantly
changing fashion market its basically who can tap into the next trend. Todays current trend is the retro style of
the 70’s and 80’s making a come back with a rise In the popularity of second
hand shops and the use of charity shops in young adults. “Cool is structured by
the restless quest for nonconformity” (Heath & Potter, 2005 p196). This
search for nonconformity has lead the youth to by retro clothing now been the
current fashion following on from last years geek sheek. The most sort after
second hand clothes are sport garments from the 70's and 80's are used nowadays. Fashion
is now referring back to combinations of colors characteristic of many sports
items. Adidas uses their logo and font type in a variety of their new Originals
range garments, footwear and accessories. Adidas are recreating a form of retro
product for new consumers that have an idealization of an “Old Skool”
lifestyle. This new division (The Originals Campaign) of Adidas has stepped
away from the athlete’s only participation in order to reach out to all others.
“Go out into the culture and actually find out where
they are using it. Where the brand idea lives. Try to merge with it.” (No logo,
Documentary) This is exactly what Adidas have done and has been a hugely successful
campaign. They created there own life style on which is appealing to the youth
of today, urban, retro, cool and ‘original’. Tapping into the rebellion age
where they want to be different, more grown up not been told what to do or
wear. The teenage cult was born where companies “The precise “attitude” teens
and twenty something’s were driven to consume” (Klein,
2005, p.68-69) Another way to sell and clothing based on a image other than
portraying a lifestyle is using celebrity endorsements.
This takes youth role models such as Sports persons, Actors, Singers and pop
groups and anyone basically followed by the public eye. Using these famous role
models as manikins for brands.
The Adidas
‘Originals’ campaign was designed with the idea of
making an individual want ‘original’ products. This campaign was highly
commercialized through advertising. For example a television advertisement was
set in the surroundings of a house party including celebrities and groups such
as David Beckham, Katy Perry, DMC, N-Dubs, Young Jeezy, Daft Punk, Noel
Gallagher, Snoop Dog and about 15 more this marketing technique is a form of
bragging stating how big Adidas is and readdressing that they produce product
for athlete aka David Beckham and pop stars like Katy Perry but are available
to the average mass. Using an abundance of different celebrities all having
huge fan bases basically to tap into as many of the youth culture that is
physically possible in one single advert. It’s a lifestyle it’s showing you the
best house party imaginable and it’s like that because everyone is wearing
Adidas. This advert oozes ‘cool’ why wouldn’t you want to be part of it is the
message that is given across to the audience. “What
consumers are thinking and feeling while they were consuming the product.” (No
Logo Documentary)
The ‘Original’
Campaign doesn’t just endorse celebrities it makes celebrities. It advertises
itself as almost a charity helping the youth achieve their dreams. They take
talented individuals from things such as skateboarding, rapping, street dancing
and other things, which are recognized as ‘cool’ and sponsor them. Making them
wear Adidas clothing, appear in advertisements talk to other youths in the same
field. This is a clever way of bring the ‘Originals’ Campaign into the youths
they are selling to into there everyday lives, there is know escaping the brand
it sponsors basically everything that youths get up to. No Logo talks about this method of advertising to youths as a very
successful formula. “But as privatization slithers into every crevice of public
life, even these intervals of freedom and back alleys of unsponsored spare are
slipping away. The indie skateboarders and snowboarders all have Vans sneaker
contracts.” (Klein, 2005, p.64) The space where teenagers go
to rebel from society and commercialism such as “ramped office towers
transformed into skateboarding course” (Klein, 2005, p.64) There isn’t
advertisements for these audiences in the places of rebellion as its unwanted
it’s frowned upon by the older generation. They only way to tap into the
underground culture is to endorse those which are participating in it.
A
desire for individuality. The present achievement youth are attempting to
peruse. “Celebrate Originality” the Adidas campaigns newest slogan.
Understanding their audience the current fashion and portraying a sense of
anti-commercialism is why Adidas have become so successful in their quest to
dominate the youth culture of today.
No Logo has opened my eyes to the way youths are exploited in
todays world. There’s nowhere you can hide from branding, take the punk culture
for example. Humans way of sticking it to advertising and big brands, as soon
as there are enough of a following it is commercialized from right under there
noses, with fashion labels mass producing,
record labels hawking the popular punk bands for profit so attempting to appeal
to the masses, selling the false idea of nonconformist, when in fact it’s the
total opposite. Commercial.
Olins W. 1999
‘Corporate Identity’ Thames and Hudson
Heath J &
Potter A. 2005 ‘The Rebel Sell’ Capstone Publishing Limited
Olins W. 2003 ‘On
Brand’ Thames and Hudson
Klein N. 2005 ‘No
Logo’ Harper Perennial
Berger J. 1977
‘Ways of Seeing’ British Broadcasting Cororation and Penguin Books
Bauman z. 2007
“consuming life” Polity Press.
TV source
No Logo
Documentary 2003
Internet Sources
