Diesel Roars In Cannes

Over the course of the last week, Diesel was awarded 13 Lions at the annual Cannes Advertising Film Festival, which recognizes and celebrates the world’s best branding efforts of the year.

Stakes were high at the 2018 edition: the field was highly competitive, and selectivity by the jurors heightened. Still, uncompromising creativity ruled and Diesel was the only fashion label to strike gold. The 13 awards went to 3 different campaigns and projects of the brand. Each unique, standing out from the others—and from the crowd.

Three awards went to “Go With The Flaw” which debuted in Fall 2017. This campaign was directed by François Rousselet, and was designed to run against the myth of perfection and flawlessness that is so common—and more often than not misrepresented—in social media era. Rousselet made a film that featured a cast embracing their uniqueness and rising above discomfort—to the soundtrack of Edith Piaf‘s ‘Non, je ne regrette rien’ (No, I don’t regret anything).

Another award went to “Go With The Flaw 2” which was released the season after, exploring the opposite point of view: what happens when you do all you can to hide your natural flaws? What happens when you chase perfection? Rousselet directed also this campaign with the ultimate message that, no matter what we do, our flaws will always be stronger than our attempts to hide them. The takeaway? Live a life that is beautifully flawed—it is impossible not to.

No less than 9 (nine!) awards went to “DEISEL,” the crazy experiment that was staged during New York Fashion Week in February 2018. Diesel secretly opened an authentic knock-off store—misspelled and mislabeled as DEISEL—on Manhattan’s Canal Street. The pieces, which appeared to be counterfeit, were actually one-of-a-kind editions made by Diesel’s design team and sold at very low prices. Subversively, Diesel wanted to tell its fans that they are free to wear whatever they want. It was not—and still isn’t—just about the label. Diesel is something bigger, a social, free-thinking experience.

During the last year, the company’s marketing campaigns received awards at high profile ceremonies both in New York and in London, and the house is particularly satisfied with these successful 12 months.

“I am proud and happy to celebrate this moment. It confirms once and for all that Diesel is back, stronger and braver than ever,” says Diesel founder Renzo Rosso. “We started from the product, building a new in-house team and involving talents from all over the world to give new interpretations of our DNA with the Diesel Red Tag project. And then we kicked off a whole new communication strategy that reaffirms our brand’s uniqueness, originality, and bravery. All this generated an incredible energy inside the company and around the brand, which I am honored to be personally part of.”

The concept of the three campaigns has been developed with creative agency Publicis.

Awards:
DEISEL GO WITH THE FAKE
BRAND EXPERIENCE & ACTIVATION (Brand-owned Experiences) – gold lion
BRAND EXPERIENCE & ACTIVATION (Customer Retail / In-store Experience) – silver lion
BRAND EXPERIENCE & ACTIVATION (Sectors > Consumer Durables) – bronze lion DESIGN (Promotional Item Design) – bronze lion
DIRECT (Sectors > Consumer Durables) – gold lion
DIRECT (Channels > Use of Ambient Media: Lange Scale) – silver lion
DIRECT (Excellence > Launch / Re-launch – bronze lion PR (Use of Events & Stunts) – bronze lion OUTDOOR (Ambient > Live Advertising & Events) – gold lion

GO WITH THE FLAW
CRAFT (Cinematography) – silver lion
CRAFT (Direction) – bronze lion
CRAFT (Production Design / Art Direction) – bronze lion

KEEP THE WORLD FLAWED
CRAFT (cinematography), bronze lion