The Strategy

My Campaign Idea

My idea for my campaign is to create a series of images for Vivienne Westwood. As i have been heavily influenced by the punk attitudes my whole life, I think using a punk fashion brand is going to be a good fit for me and my personal brand. Currently, I do not feel that Vivienne Westwoods pieces and shows are truly reflecting Vivienne’s rebellious spirit so I hope that I can create a campaign that captures this flawlessly.

I want the campaign name to be ‘Look Behind the Beauty: the Story of Not Givina a Fuck’. My message throughout my work has always been to look behind the beauty and I like to think of this as looking towards the bigger picture and that not everything is truly as it seems. The images will be in black and white as I feel that this shows raw emotion in photos and that once all of the colours are gone, you are left with silhouettes and facial expressions. This to me creates a gritty image that shows the true meaning behind the images and the emotion that I need to heavily rely on to portray the message for my campaign.

The Target Market

My target market for this campaign in very specific. I want to target the people from Gen Z who are different and who don’t rely on trends when they get dressed in the morning.

Although I feel that the punk spirit is no longer really alive on society anymore, this des not mean that there isn’t people who believe in this. Yungblud is a singer who does and wears what he wants because that’s what he feels comfortable wearing. His songs such as ‘Parents’ is about the rejection he has faced by his own parents and society and I think that the people who can relate to that story would like the campaign and these people is who the campaign is heavily targeted towards.

I also want the older generations who are loyal to and buy Vivienne Westwood to like the campaign and feel nostalgic when they see the images. This nostalgia is what I want to be able to capture to intrigue the older genenerations who were influenced by Vivienne and the punk community throughout their lives.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for a time period in this past. Other brands have been using nostalgia to sell their products. A recent example of this that I can think of is the Oh Polly x Bratz collection. Bratz were dolls which were fashionable in the 2000’s and all the kids back then wanted them. I had a big collection of Bratz dolls and remembering the feelings I had when I would be given one is what made me look up the collection and want pieces from this.

Nostalgia is a major way to create a relationship with consumers as they feel that they have already lived part of the brand so feel connected to the brand. Using nostalgia in marketing is almost like the brand promising to tak the consumer back to a time of happiness and good memories. When this is done properly, it creates an emotional connection from the consumer to the brand. And I think that this campaign could do this for the loyal consumers of Vivienne Westwood and hopefully it will bring the punk spark and attitudes back to people.

The problems with VivienneWestwood

The main issue thatI have found with Vivienne Westwood as a brand is that it has lost direction. This happened when the torch was passed to Andreas Kronthaler after Vivienne died. I feel that consumers and loyal customers for the brand were already sceptical of what he would create and How he would show this.

Andreas is mourning the loss of his wife and probably tried really hard to do a catwalk that Vivienne herself would’ve done. I think the message and the intentions behind the show he did have been lost or not translated well enough.

Apparently the collection was based on the items of clothing which Vivienne herself wore day to day and although this sentiment is so powerful, the show then took all of the meaning away from this with models looking like they were part of a demonic cult with their accessories and the music which was used.

I think that by telling a story of true punk, the customer loyalty will continue and will bring in new customers who are intrigued by the lifestyle.

Nancy Spungen

Nancy was the girlfriend of Sid Vicious, the bassist of the Sex Pistols. Nancy was a girl who loved partying and who was an avid member of the punk community. Even before meeting Sid, she had a reputation of being fun loving and not wanting people to think she was a clean and polished girl. She knew who she was and didn’t want to hide this.

She was diagnosed with schizophrenia which made her different from herpeers, this is probably why the attitudes and the behaviours of punks stuck out to her. Despite her mental health, she knew who she was and the spark in her.

She had a major influence over the women who loved punk. She was stylish at that time and was a groupie for different bands and then she became one for the Sex Pistols. The other band members didn’t like her or her abrasive attitude but this is what Sid was captivated by, despite her reputation as a junkie and a trouble maker.

Malcolm McLaren recalled that it was Nancy who taught Sid about sex, drugs and the lifestyle of a New York Rocker

Nancy Spungen

Sid already had problems with addiction and his relationship with Nancy didn’t make things any better. They were 2 people in love on their own paths of self destruction which we already know from the countless toxic love stories such as Amy and Blake and even Romeo and Juliet that it would not end well.

it is rumoured that the relationship between Sid and Nancy was one of the reasons the Sex Pistols split up. It is no secret that Sid was struggling with addiction and Nancy was too, this type of relationship has no support but only enabling. I think that Nancy was blamed for things that would’ve eventually happened anyway. Before meeting her, Sid was already using and addiction only gets worse the more you expose yourself to the substance. The life of a rock star would’ve taken him down that path eventually, especially a rock star as rebellious and outrageous as Sid.

Their addictions led to them moving into the Chelsea hotel where they would disappear for days and even weeks at a time to get high.

Nancy Spungen

Eventually, this lifestyle get the better of them. In 1978, Nancy was murdered. She was found half naked and dead on their bathroom flor in the hotel covered in stab wounds. She had bled to death.

It had been reported that Sid was seen taking huge amounts of drugs and the day before Nancy asked bodyguards for opiates for Sid.

When the police came to the scene, Sid confessed to killing Nancy and in the holding cell he was saying he did it because he’s ‘ a dirty dog’. later, once the affects of the drugs he was taking had worn off, Sid took back his confession explaining that he doesn’t remember anything and that he was passed out the whole time. I think it is obvious that he killed her but he never intended to do so. He loved her and I think this was an act carried out because of the drugs, not because he actually wanted to hurt her.

Nancy Spungen

They were both such wild people that who knows what they liked to do together, perhaps this was a sexual fantasy gone wrong. I think that with the right help, Sid and Nancy could’ve recovered from their addictions but with their strong mindsets and stubbornness, they may have never recieved help. This story is the most memorable from the punk era. I feel that this story captures my message to ‘look behind the beauty’ perfectly. To look at them and hear the stories of how ,much they loved each other, nobody would ever think that they were capable of what Sid did to her.

I think that creating images and looks inspired by Nancy is the best way to go to get the message across throughout the campaign. I feel that knowing the full story gives a different look onto the images of her than if you don’t and you just look at them images. Everything looks fine but ut really isn’t and the grittiness of punk hid the true extent of her issues well.

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Nancy Spungen

Potential locations

Originally I wanted to do a location shoot for this campaign. I wanted the background if the images to be taken in fields and in dirty back alleys, however I feel that this can be added using photoshop and editing the images after they have been taken in the studio.

I think that using the studio will be the best option as I can get the perfect lighting to really highlight any imperfections in the image. I want harsh lighting as everything at the time was harsh and as I want the images in black and white, I will need the lighting to be perfect and taking these images outside will be too unpredictable. I will however, take my own photos of the scenes I want to show and edit them in through the post production process.

The Shoot

My aim for this shoot is to recreate photos of Nancy using clothes similar that she wore at the time. Although I want to incorporate slogan tees like the ones Vivienne began her career creating, I wanted to set the scene and find items that matched her style and what she was wearing back then.

Market level

for this campaign, I want to revive the red label for Vivienne Westwood. This is a sister brand that was created so that people could afford to buy into the brand at a lower price point. Vivienne Westwood is luxury and I feel that my campaign is anything but. The red label sits below Vivienne Westwood on the market, I feel it is a bridge brand and that is what I want to continue with.

The Red Label is what Vivienne would use to create her logo tees with her political messages on such as the ‘Climate Revolution’ t-shirts. I feel that this collection would fit perfectly within the Red Label due to the economic crisis the UK is currently experiencing. Yungblud created a festival and lowered the ticket prices to that people could afford the tickets in a protest against the cost of living crisis and I feel that this would be seen as a fuck you to the government from the people struggling.

Slogans

I want to use slogans on the images and slogan tees to show the messages behind the photos and as a protest to the current goings on.

The first slogan that came to mind is ‘It’s fucking freezing in here’ this is a quote from the film Billy Elliot which helped me get a sense of Britain around that thime and the problems which were being protested against. With the cost of living crisis, the cost to heat a home rose significantly causing millions across the UK to not be able to afford to heat their home.

Another one I want to use is ‘I didn’t ask for your shitty opinion’. My campaign is about being yourself and not listening to society telling you what to wear and just generally not giving a fuck about social norms. I feel this slogan captures this perfectly. And I also want to use the slogan ‘I don’t give a fuck’. This is the title of my campaign and I feel that it would look perfect on a tee.

Where will the campaign be featured?

I want this campaign to be featured primarily on Instagram. I think that the contrast of scrolling through the heavily edited perfect photos of celebrities and influencers.

I want the campaign to be a reality check for people and keeping the photos unfiltered and highlighting any imperfections will be the way to go.

I think that people will see this and will have a second look. I want the campaign to stick out and, and not for the right reasons of the images being perfect.

I think creating this reality check will be refreshing to the instagram users and hopefully will stop them obsessing about looking perfect and having no flaws.

In a way, I want this to uninfluence people from the influencers.

Where will the campaign be featured?

Overview

Overall, I want this campaign to show the reality of life in the UK currently. I want it to shine a light on the political problems which we are facing and to shine a light on perfection and how its not always needed and that not everything is perfect.

I also want to create a campaign for Vivienne Westwood that she would like and that sits well with her work. I do not want to change anything about the brand and what they have done in the past, if anything I want to be able to take the brand back to its origins and start from there.

I hope that this campaign can be nostalgic to some people and be something new and refreshing to others. Although these 2 things contradict each other, I want it to have a personal meaning to people to establish that emotional connection with the brand and that kind of connection is different for everyone.

Recreating punk attitudes today

References

Page 3 - Oxford Dictionary

Page 3 -

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Nostalgiamarketing-explained-Everything-you-alreadyknow#:~:text=Companies%20can%20use%20nostalgia%20 marketing,through%20reboots%2C%20remakes%20and% 20throwbacks.

Page 4 - Oh Polly

Pages 6-9

https://allthatsinteresting.com/nancy-spungen