Be Stupid

Why it works

A fashion brand that told its customers to stop being sensible. Anomaly's first work for Diesel, devised with the label's own creative team, paired photographs of people pulling reckless, cheeky or provocative stunts with blunt capitalised manifestos setting smart against stupid: "Smart may have the brains, but stupid has the balls," "Smart critiques, stupid creates." It ran in 2010 across press, posters, digital and viral channels, selling an attitude far more than jeans. It is studied twice over: as a lesson in tone of voice, one reversible formula able to spin out endless lines, and as a cautionary tale about context. It shared the Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes in 2010, the first year that prize was split, with the jury president praising its appetite for risk and talkability. Days later Britain's Advertising Standards Authority, acting on 33 complaints, cleared the magazine versions but banned two images as posters, ruling billboards an untargeted medium that children would see.