Sep 27, 2018

Snacks that won't help you fit in last year's jeans

A China campaign for Lee by McCann mixes fashion and foodstuffs, including Lay's potato chips.

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Snacks that won't help you fit in last year's jeans

McCann Hong Kong's planners for Lee Jeans' 'Move Your Lee' campaign for its fall/winter 2018 collection did one job right. The consumer insights behind the work are quite perceptive in terms of cultural interpretation, trying to fuse the desire of Chinese youths to manifest themselves in different fashion styles and their love of snacking.

Yes, the social tone of voice is on-culture and on-brand. "Be any snack you like!" Shouts the ad copy in various snack-themed campaign visuals showing products of Lee’s X-line sub-brand styled with the colours of bananas, macarons, marshmallows, chocolate, cotton candy, milk tea, rainbow sweets and soda.

The brand also partnered with Lay's to introduce the first-ever "wearable potato chips and denim jacket", which is only available for sale online.

These, to McCann, are part of a "snack transformation formula" that could help Lee X-Line "grasp the ever-changing millennials’ attention and to stand out in the cluttered market".

However, all Ad Nut could think of is how those snacks will transform Ad Nut's waistline instead. If you can still zip and button your jeans after copious amounts of sugar-laden and calorie-dense snacks, Ad Nut wants a dozen pairs, please. Oh, Ad Nut just realised the X-Line jeans has 4-way stretch technology. How handy!

But Ad Nut is still not sure how potato chips can be 'wearable'. Were the potato fibres woven into the denim fabric? Is it just the Lay's logo overlaid on the jacket? Is Ad Nut wearing the logo instead of the chips? Sure, this campaign pushes the creative envelope, but crossover marketing has its risks when there is little synergy or congruence between the partnering brands on the product level.

Of course, Ad Nut gets it that the appeal of co-branded products may not be the product itself, but the act of two brands 'stirring things up'. Because Ad Nut is not a piece of 'little fresh meat' (a Chinese internet term for attractive, young males)—the target segment for Lee X-Line—let the millennials in Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa and Macau decide.

CREDITS:

Lee Jeans: Vincy Ho, Caleb Cheng, Jolin Zhang, Sunny Su, Hagan Chan, Pipe Guan, Season Wang
PHD Management: Jaslin Goh, Florence Kong
Creative Team: Michael Li, Poppy Qian, Nic Lam, Anthony Yeung
Account Team: Annie Yip, Morris Pun, Jan Ng

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.

Source:

Campaign China