The famous Patagonia 'Don't Buy This Jacket' ad increased sales by 30% for a company that very (outwardly) appeared to despise the power that they had...What if the powers that be decided to pull the same stunt?
I don't know all that much about Patagonia, nor marketing, (nor anything for that matter)...but from everything I've heard and read about Patagonia, their 'Don't Buy this Jacket' ad was actually somewhat of an earnest plea into pressing issues...mainly...the issue of overconsumption. But...also quite famously...it backfired. Sales rose 30% immediately following the ad (as we can likely imagine many people bought into the idea of overconsumption while subconciously also shitting on the idea)...
At the time this ad came out, I lived less than a mile from a Patagonia store and decided to check out their black friday sale and it was just as shitty as any Nike line on black friday. I bought a jacket. And I remember specifically thinking...'this will be the last jacket that I ever buy, for the planet.'
LOL
I dunno, I go through these phases where I'm like 'how stupid is all of this shit' and then I go and buy 5 more pairs of shoes in a day and I'm actually becoming the thing that I despise. It's absurd. But it kind of highlights the dichotomy of wanting to be a part of something that you're too small to control. We'd like to think that these brands help us acheive the 'self-expression' that we so desperately want to express...not really understanding that our 'self-expression' isn't all that *truly* expressive....
I dunno...I'm just trying to think...if Nike posted an ad like the Patagonia ad for ANYTHING...ANYTHING AT ALL...EVEN MONARCHS....there's like zero doubt in my mind that we'd all eat it up like a bunch of sheep.
The power of these brands, man, smh