Do Desigual have their pants down?

By Lucy Werner on Monday, January 13, 2014

Desigual Stunt – Paris 8th January 2014

On a cold Wednesday morning in the French capital, Spanish clothing brand Desigual offered 100 of its fans a chance to win an outfit…the only catch was they had to be in their underwear, prepared to run 100 metres around the block until they were allowed into store. Here’s what happened:

The stunt, which took place in Paris on Wednesday 8th January, isn’t the first time the risqué brand has held such events. The stunt named ‘come half naked, leave fully dressed’ has been used across the world from New York to Amsterdam to Madrid. The mechanic of the stunt was simple; all Desigual had to do was tempt their loyal European following to endure the cold weather in their undies and they’d win a free ‘outfit’.

This may sound like just another recycled PR stunt trying to get people to strip down to their underwear (…oh the shame!?). However, clothing sales in France are tightly coordinated by local government, meaning they must have strict start and end dates – so I guess this chance to win a free outfit was much to the delight of the rebellious French consumer!

Was this stunt a success? Yes, it was a definite win for Desigual; the video package was posted online on Reuters as well as Yahoo! News, but will it make me want to pick up one their patchwork jumpers…we’ll have to see!

And for me, I feel like I’ve seen it all before. So next time, they might need to up their game; how about incorporating a race element? Or maybe the temptation of winning an item that isn’t actually in the sale will be enough to convince people to take all their clothes off.