dockers vs. diesel: two brands, two messages

Perhaps it’s my current addiction to Mad Men, but lately, I’ve been paying attention to advertisements, especially in magazines.

Yesterday, while thumbing through my latest issue of GQ, I came across two different ad campaigns: Dockers and Diesel. I was struck by how different their messages were.

Dockers’ current campaign is entitled “Wear the Pants.”

This is the ad I saw:

I found this ad here.

It’s difficult to read, so here’s what the ad says. From Dockers’ “Man-ifesto”:

Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well. Women rarely had to open doors and little old ladies never crossed the street alone. Men took charge because that’s what they did. But somewhere along the way, the world decided it no longer needed men. Disco by disco, latte by foamy non-fat latte, men were stripped of their khakis and left stranded on the road between boyhood and androgyny. But today, there are questions our genderless society has no answers for. The world sits idly by as cities crumble, children misbehave and those little old ladies remain on one side of the street. For the first time since bad guys, we need heroes. We need grown-ups. We need men to put down the plastic fork, step away from the salad bar and untie the world from the tracks of complacency. It’s time to get your hands diry. It’s time to answer the call of manhood. It’s time to WEAR THE PANTS.

Interesting, huh? In “Christianese,” the campaign might be considered Wild At Heart meets Sean Hannity with a hint of Bebo Norman. While Dockers isn’t going to relaunch “Man,” I do like this campaign for several reasons.

1) It resists the temptation to define “masculinity” by sports, dick size, beer, or how many times you’ve been laid.

2) It’s a subtle request for men to take some responsibility… (And again, yes, I know that’s not going to happen by wearing Dockers.)

3) It mentions little old ladies. I love that. My grandmother was so precious to me. I think how a culture takes care of its elderly is often more reflective of its “true values” than other methods used to measure values.

I should mention that some are calling this campaign sexist. I don’t believe it is, but that’s my opinion. Perhaps I’m missing something.

Now consider the ad campaign for Diesel. It’s current tagline is “Be Stupid.”

In addition to “be stupid,” the campaign disses the idea of “being smart.” It doesn’t offend me, but because these two campaigns sat very close to each other in GQ, I think the differences in messages stood out. One basically says “stop being stupid” and the other shouts “be stupid!”

And duh, you can do both by wearing a brand of pants. I don’t wear either brand. I wonder what wearing Target or Old Navy pants says about me.

Thoughts about either campaign?

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