Harvey Nichols: The Provocateurs - Creative Review (blog)
The fashion and luxury industries have a reputation for seriousness, but over the last decade and a half luxury department store Harvey Nichols, with its ad agency adam&eveDDB, has shown that its customers will respond to humour too, especially if... The brand's marketing work may have received as many complaints as it has awards, but is impossible to ignore – we take an in-depth look at it here. There are certain brands which have a body of ads that are interesting enough, consistent enough, that whenever a new piece of work drops, there is an immediate rush to view. The John Lewis Christmas ad. Honda. Also in this group, sliding in with a cheeky wink, is UK luxury department store Harvey Nichols. Harvey Nicks, to use the nickname that most Brits know the store by, has a reputation for outrage, for making its audiences gasp and giggle simultaneously. In July it released an ad for its new Rewards app. But Harvey Nichols managed to capture news headlines across the UK’s national press and all over the net with an eye-catching spot featuring genuine CCTV footage from the store’s security cameras, which showed people stealing items. Their faces were disguised with comical cartoon faces designed by The Layzell Brothers, but the scenes spared viewers nothing, with the thieves shown being apprehended, sometimes violently, by security guards and thrown into holding rooms. This is the brand that in amongst the gloss and glamour of the Christmas market has thrown out a number of curve balls: in 2011 it released a film. Source: www.creativereview.co.uk
