Ghostly trick grabs the attention

Dawn Braithwaite

As a keen fashion enthusiast, and having graduated (all those years ago) in Fashion Promotion, I like to keep up to date with the weird and wonderful world of fashion design and advertising.

I've always seen DKNY as straight laced and clean cut when it comes to their ad campaigns, which usually feature a bored looking model strolling down the streets of (I hear) NYC. So I was quite taken aback when I discovered DKNY's latest 'Ghost Bike' guerilla campaign.

The Ghost Bike Campaign is a project which started in NYC in the 90's and has spread to other large cities, including London. The Cycling Community spray bikes totally white and chain them to an area where a cyclist has died in a road accident as a memorial and to promote road safety awareness.

With the vision of creating a more street/urban feel to their latest show, DKNY sprayed a number of bikes neon orange, branded them and chained them up (mostly illegally) around the streets of NYC. The campaign was promoted on their website, which featured a photo shoot of models riding the bikes, and customers could pick up maps in store to locate the bikes around the city.

This controversial project spawned complaints from cyclists as this campaign bore great resemblance to the Ghost Biking campaign. Don't get me wrong, I love it when a controversial piece of design or a PR campaign causes a national debate. I'm all up for 'thinking out side of the box' and agree that shock tactics grab attention and do the trick but there's a fine line between shock and bad taste.

COMMENTS

No comments added for this entry.

POST A COMMENT