Diesel promoting rapidly stands aside once you examine vogue advertising lengthy sufficient, as a result of whereas most manufacturers play it protected—hiring lovely fashions, taking pictures in beautiful places, and saying one thing vaguely aspirational—Diesel has finished the precise reverse; it’s been provocative, political, self-aware, and generally flat-out bizarre. And guess what?
It labored spectacularly.
On this weblog, I’m going to stroll by a very powerful Diesel promoting campaigns throughout each channel (print, TV, out of doors, digital, and social media) as a result of these are precisely the sorts of daring, culture-led methods that main vogue digital advertising firms perceive execute. Whether or not you’re operating a vogue startup in Milan, a denim label in New York, or a way of life model in Istanbul, Diesel’s advertising playbook has one thing to show you.
Let’s get into it.
What’s Inside
Fast Introduction to Diesel Advertising and marketing: The Model Behind the Bravery
Earlier than we get into the campaigns themselves, it’s price understanding who Diesel is and why its promoting technique differs from the competitors.
Diesel was based in 1978 by Renzo Rosso in Breganze, Italy. The model began as a denim firm and rapidly grew to become recognized for vintage-washed denims at a time when polished, pristine denim was the norm. By the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineties, Diesel denims promoting had turn out to be one thing of a cultural dialog.
The Cannes Worldwide Promoting Pageant named Renzo Rosso as its Advertiser of the Yr for 1998, which tells you all the pieces it’s essential to know. This was a denims model beating out international client giants to say one among promoting’s most prestigious honors.
Diesel on the Cannes Lions Worldwide Promoting Pageant gained the Grand Prix Award in 1997, 2001, and 2010. Three Grand Prix wins. Three. Most manufacturers could be thrilled to be nominated as soon as.
In the present day, Diesel operates in additional than 80 nations with roughly 5,000 factors of sale globally. Diesel garments can value anyplace between $100 and $2000. This can be a premium model concentrating on city shoppers who’re keen to pay for id, not simply cloth, which makes good promoting not only a nice-to-have, however an existential necessity.
And Diesel’s advertising technique? It’s fairly past conventional strikes; neglect flashy names, younger figures, and “good faces.”
Let’s be extra particular.
Prime Diesel Promoting Campaigns
At that time, I must say that Diesel has all the time finished issues a bit of in a different way with regards to promoting.
Whereas most vogue manufacturers follow polished visuals and protected messaging, Diesel’s campaigns are usually extra playful, cheeky, and generally even a bit controversial, as I said within the earlier part.
In different phrases, they don’t simply present you the garments in any respect. They inform a narrative, make a joke, or touch upon what’s taking place on this planet round us. Take a fast take a look at Diesel’s influencer collaboration with Terri / Tereska for the #ForSuccessfulLiving marketing campaign. Does it appear like a normal vogue commercial in any respect?
So, through the years, this strategy has helped Diesel create campaigns that folks bear in mind lengthy after the season is over. On this part, I invite you to check out a few of Diesel’s promoting campaigns (essentially the most talked-about ones)
Marketing campaign #1: “Be Silly”
Of all of the Diesel denims promoting campaigns, “Be Silly” might be essentially the most studied, referenced, and debated in advertising school rooms around the globe. And for good purpose.
Developed at international promoting company Anomaly, the marketing campaign contains on-line, press, and out of doors commercials that includes “silly” acts, a digital recruitment marketing campaign for the Diesel music video/2010 catalogue, and viral exercise outlining the corporate’s “Silly” philosophy.
Among the marketing campaign’s copywriting was genuinely sensible:
“Sensible plans. Silly improvises. Sensible sees what there may be. Silly sees what there may very well be. Silly may fail. Sensible doesn’t even strive. Sensible critiques. Silly creates. Sensible could have the solutions, however silly has all of the fascinating questions.”
On the experiential facet, in partnership with Spotify and Dazed & Confused, Diesel hosted a “Noah’s Ark” occasion. In response to the assertion on A Taste of Space:
Diesel’s marketing campaign celebrated stupidity as a liberating antidote to intelligence. Being silly is on the centre of a relentless pursuit of a regret-free life. If we weren’t silly we wouldn’t have the ability to fail, take dangers, progress and even be really sensible.
As a part of their marketing campaign Diesel wished to encourage silly behaviour for one night time solely. We created Noah’s Ark, during which 300 competitors winners in Kigu animal costumes got here and expressed their most silly animalistic facet.
The social media part was additionally forward of its time. The marketing campaign used Foursquare (the location-based platform that was enormous in 2010 as you could know) to create check-in factors and group engagement. There was a Fb activation known as “Facepark” that introduced social connection again into the true world.
So, the “Be Silly” marketing campaign nails a selected cultural second.” Diesel confirmed that taking a danger and failing is best than a safer, smarter means of doing issues.
The very best half? The marketing campaign gained the Cannes Lions Grand Prix in 2010. It generated huge earned media globally and remains to be referenced in model technique conversations 15 years later.
Marketing campaign #2: “Go With the Flaw”
Launched in September 2017, “Go along with the Flaw” was really a cinematic brief movie directed by François Rousselet, the identical director answerable for music movies for Madonna, Snoop Dogg, and The Rolling Stones.
The Diesel advert featured characters who proudly displayed their perceived imperfections: crooked eyes, unibrows, and mismatched options. Because the marketing campaign’s creative director, Nicola Formichetti put it:
Being distinctive is way more lovely than being good.
The marketing campaign’s strategic perception was sharp: social media had created a worldwide epidemic of carried out perfection. Diesel determined to rejoice the tough edges as a substitute.
The execution was genuinely multi-channel. The Diesel promoting marketing campaign included:
- An enormous print and out of doors marketing campaign operating globally on billboards, in magazines, and throughout transit media.
- A whole lot of influencers throughout completely different markets created localized content material across the Go along with the Flaw idea.
- Catwalk and in-store activations; the marketing campaign ran all through Diesel shops globally, with in-store executions celebrating uniqueness.
- Tinder advertisements. Diesel ran hyper-targeted advertisements particularly constructed for Tinder, celebrating the “flawed” qualities folks may attempt to cover on relationship profiles.
After which got here the Instagram second that everybody talked about. On the day the marketing campaign launched, Diesel deleted their total Instagram account and began contemporary.
The model launched an announcement saying:
“We expect perfection is boring, and particularly on Instagram all people seeks perfection. Good photograph, good image, good life. And we’re simply bored with it. So we determined to delete all the pieces for an imperfect new starting.”
As you may predict, the Diesel marketing campaign earned 3 Shortlists in Trade Craft and Print at Cannes Lions 2018, plus 1 Silver in Print and Outside at ADCI 2018.
Marketing campaign #3: “Go With the Pretend”
Right here is one other Diesel promoting marketing campaign, however this time, I’m speaking about tens of millions of social impressions in simply 7 days.
Again in 2018, throughout New York Vogue Week, Diesel secretly opened a retailer on the nook of Canal Road and Broadway. The shop was known as “DEISEL.” It was a deliberate misspelling of the model’s title.
The interiors have been designed to look authentically shoddy and cluttered. Two actors have been employed to play suspicious shopkeepers. And, unsuspecting consumers wandered in, examined the merchandise, and a few have been confused: the products appeared genuinely prime quality for what gave the impression to be a knockoff store. Just a few identified the misspelling. Others purchased gadgets anyway, impressed by the standard even from what they assumed was a counterfeit model.
The twist about that marketing campaign? Each single merchandise within the retailer was an genuine, one-of-a-kind piece specifically crafted by Diesel’s personal design staff, labelled as “DEISEL” with faux branding. The purchasers who purchased them with out realizing have been taking house real collector’s gadgets.
Throughout New York Vogue Week, Diesel let the key out. The shop instantly offered out. Then DEISEL launched on-line, and the web collectively misplaced its thoughts.
Andy Chook, Chief Artistic Officer at Publicis, reflected on the boldness of the transfer:
There aren’t many manufacturers that might take a calculated danger like this, however as a result of they form of know that they have already got the cachet with the previous historical past of promoting, they’ve all the time been a bit extra adventurous and it matches completely with their outlook.
And sure, that promoting marketing campaign of Diesel proved yet another time that the model doesn’t play it protected.
Marketing campaign #4: “Be A Follower”
As you could bear in mind, by early 2019, influencer advertising had utterly taken over vogue promoting. Each model was pouring finances into Instagram, hiring influencers, and making an attempt to look as native as doable to the platform’s aesthetic.
And Diesel did the precise reverse. They constructed their total SS19 Diesel denims promoting marketing campaign round mocking influencer tradition. The premise was easy however sharp: all people needs to be an influencer right now. However do influencers even have higher lives? The marketing campaign’s reply was an unambiguous no.
The message was articulated completely by Diesel and Publicis Italy’s inventive staff:
By means of this marketing campaign, Diesel took the eye away from social media’s influential elite, and gave it to the 99%. It’s a celebration of those that don’t strive too exhausting. It’s a reminder that actual profitable dwelling is a simple artwork.
And Diesel went additional nonetheless. They launched “SIDE:BIZ.” It was really a loyalty program framed explicitly as a follow-up to the Be A Follower marketing campaign. SIDE:BIZ gave common prospects affiliate codes and low cost entry, turning model loyalists into a real revenue-driving community.
So, it was influencer advertising turned inside out.
Marketing campaign #5: “Spirit of the Courageous”
Talking of Influencers and flashy names… Here’s a Diesel promoting marketing campaign with a widely known determine: Neymar Jr. However in its personal type.
Really, most celeb collaborations observe a predictable script: a well-known individual poses in a pleasant outfit, holds the bottle at a flattering angle, and appears aspirational. And sure, Diesel did it utterly in a different way.
Spirit of the Courageous was the primary time Diesel Fragrances ever collaborated with an athlete. And it additionally represented the primary time a spokesperson was concerned in all points of a perfume’s creation, from the very starting of growth by to the worldwide launch. The bottle was impressed instantly by one among Neymar’s tattoos: a roaring lion on his fist, representing power and management.
The Diesel marketing campaign launched on Might 19, 2019 concurrently in additional than 40 nations. For the French market particularly, company Buzzman developed a focused natural technique connecting the perfume to esports, sports activities, and avenue tradition communities; the subcultures most aligned with Neymar’s viewers.
And… Spirit of the Courageous grew to become one of many summer time “hits” amongst male fragrances in selective retail in France.
Marketing campaign #6: Diesel × CASETiFY
Now, let’s see a 2026-dated marketing campaign.
That is one among Diesel’s most strategically fascinating current strikes, and it’s a masterclass in how a vogue model can develop its presence with out diluting its id.
CASETiFY, you could know, is the Hong Kong-based tech equipment model that has turned telephone circumstances, chargers, and energy banks into real way of life objects. Their collaborations promote out frequently, and their audiences skew younger, international, and digitally native.
The collaboration & marketing campaign prolonged Diesel’s aesthetic into a brand new object class with out requiring new retail infrastructure. A 19-year-old who can’t but afford a pair of Diesel denims can purchase a Diesel telephone case for $40 and be a part of the model universe. That is the way you construct tomorrow’s premium buyer.
What’s extra, the launch technique was digital-native from the beginning. CASETiFY’s Co-Lab app, wishlist sign-ups, precedence entry home windows — these are instruments designed for an viewers that lives on their telephones and treats product drops like occasions. Diesel’s visible content material was designed to work on Instagram and TikTok, not simply in show promoting.
Marketing campaign #7: “#MakeLoveNotWalls”
This Diesel promoting marketing campaign is a textbook case examine in how a model can take a political stance with out it feeling like opportunism.
Shot by legendary photographer David LaChapelle and art-directed by Nicola Formichetti, the “#MakeLoveNotWalls” marketing campaign launched throughout New York Vogue Week in February 2017. It was weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration and the primary iteration of the journey ban.
The photographs have been unmistakable: a various, joyful forged that includes a homosexual marriage ceremony, a rainbow-colored tank, and daring imagery of inclusivity and love. And it differentiated itself from the Diesel denims promoting we’re used to seeing.
As Formichetti explained:
At Diesel, we now have a powerful place towards hate and greater than ever we would like the world to know that. Love and togetherness is essential in making a society all of us need to dwell in.
The rationale this marketing campaign labored is that Diesel had been making socially aware, politically conscious campaigns since 1991. In different phrases, model activism solely works when it’s according to the model’s historic id.
Diesel’s Social Media Technique: The Full Image
You’ll be able to’t discuss diesel promoting campaigns with out speaking about how Diesel has used (and subverted) social media.
They’ve used it, satirized it, deleted it, rebuilt it, and turned it right into a efficiency advertising machine. In different phrases, Diesel’s digital advertising technique doesn’t attempt to win the sport, as the opposite vogue manufacturers do. Whereas each different vogue model is optimizing for attain, followers, and algorithm-friendly content material, Diesel is asking a unique query:
“What does this medium say about us, and the way do we are saying one thing true by it, or about it?”
As Artistic Director, Glenn Martens put it candidly relating to Diesel’s social media technique:
In 2025, a inventive director needs to be a socialite, needs to be the king of social media and there’s so many extra issues that each one my colleagues and I’ve to do exterior of that runway. We’re simply consuming visuals and we don’t actually have the time to go deep into the garments, the storytelling, the development, the place it comes from. It simply must be like a success.”
Diesel’s response to that strain isn’t to provide in to it. Really, Diesel’s Instagram (@diesel) presently has 3 million followers and a couple of,644 posts, a modest quantity for a worldwide premium model. Examine that to quick vogue giants with 20–50 million followers, and also you begin to see the intentionality. Diesel doesn’t chase follower rely. They chase cultural weight.
Keep in mind the Instagram deletion; after that, Diesel rebuilt their Instagram with a unique ethos: rawer, much less polished, extra confrontational. As a substitute of aspirational way of life imagery, posts celebrated flaws, oddity, and authenticity. The grid grew to become a rolling gallery of actual folks with actual imperfections.
Supply: https://www.instagram.com/diesel/
Nevertheless, beneath Glenn Martens, Diesel’s Instagram has been used systematically round vogue weeks. Really, one of the vital issues Martens has finished for Diesel’s social media technique since taking on in 2020 is remodel the runway present from a closed, industry-only occasion into an open, socially distributed expertise. And it’s a good way to make use of social media for vogue, little doubt.
What’s extra, the model makes use of Instagram as its major channel for collaboration reveals: the Savage × Fenty capsule, the Diesel × CASETiFY drops, and celeb marketing campaign reveals all debut on Instagram first.
What about TikTok? Diesel’s TikTok presence (@diesel) tells an fascinating story: 397,800 followers and 6.3 million likes. Diesel doesn’t put up day by day TikToks chasing the algorithm; however after they put up, it performs.
And… The primary query: What does Diesel’s social media technique say about vogue advertising in a nutshell?
The constant lesson operating by each period of Diesel’s social media presence is that the manufacturers that win on social are those who use the platform to say one thing true.
It means Diesel’s social media isn’t notably polished. The account doesn’t put up seven instances per week. The follower rely isn’t industry-leading. However the content material is persistently fascinating, persistently shareable, and persistently in service of one thing greater than a product shot.
FAQ about Diesel Promoting Campaigns
What defines Diesel promoting in comparison with conventional vogue promoting?
Diesel makes use of promoting to make cultural statements, problem social norms, and interact with the precise world its viewers resides in. The place conventional vogue promoting tries to point out you a greater model of your self, Diesel promoting tries to inform you one thing true in regards to the world, typically in a means that makes you chuckle or suppose or each. What’s extra, Diesel makes use of irony as a structural instrument. “For Profitable Residing,” “Be Silly,” “Get pleasure from Earlier than Returning” and extra are ironic. Conventional vogue promoting doesn’t do irony.
And at last: Diesel’s promoting has all the time been built-in in a means that conventional vogue promoting isn’t. The “Be Silly” marketing campaign ran concurrently on billboards, in magazines, on early social platforms, at an experiential occasion in London, and by way of digital activations on Foursquare. The “Go With the Pretend” pop-up in Canal Road was concurrently a bodily expertise, a PR occasion, a social media marketing campaign, and a movie.
What are essentially the most iconic Diesel promoting campaigns and why did they stand out?
- “For Profitable Residing” stands out as a result of it broke new floor by tackling subjects like race, sexuality, and politics at a time when vogue stayed silent.
- “Be Silly” turned the phrase “silly” into an emblem of braveness and sparked international buzz.
- “Go With the Pretend” grabbed tens of millions of impressions and offered out in simply 24 hours from a Canal Road pop-up.
- “Be A Follower” drove actual enterprise outcomes with customer-run SIDE: BIZ shops and a soar in on-line gross sales in its first week.
- “Then there’s Go With the Flaw” which deleted Diesel’s Instagram in a transfer no playbook would recommend, and labored exactly as a result of it was so sudden.
How do Diesel promoting campaigns use provocation to drive model relevance?
Diesel’s promoting provokes with objective. Not by creating controversy that weakens the model, its campaigns persistently faucet into cultural tensions in ways in which reinforce what Diesel stands for. The playbook is easy however efficient: determine one thing your viewers genuinely cares about, reply in a means that’s emotionally trustworthy or playfully disruptive, and launch it at peak cultural moments like Vogue Week or Valentine’s Day to maximise consideration with out growing media spend. The provocation grabs headlines, however the philosophy behind it builds lasting model relevance.
Why does Diesel promoting focus extra on cultural commentary than product options?
Diesel focuses on cultural commentary over product options as a result of options don’t construct loyalty—values do. Since 1991, Diesel promoting has positioned the model each as a maker of well-made denims (like many different manufacturers) and as an emblem of individuality and non-conformity, turning every buy into a private assertion about the way you see the world. Whereas product advantages can rapidly turn out to be outdated, values-driven positioning is much extra sturdy.
How has Diesel tailored its promoting campaigns for digital and social media platforms?
As I said above, Diesel has tailored to digital and social media by breaking the foundations. It means, Diesel has turned platform norms into inventive alternatives, from deleting its Instagram in 2017 as a marketing campaign stunt to mocking influencer tradition in 2019 whereas utilizing it to energy SIDE:BIZ. Extra not too long ago, beneath Glenn Martens, the model has reworked vogue exhibits into large-scale, social-first experiences designed to generate crowd-driven content material, whereas persevering with to put money into cinematic brief movies that stand out in crowded feeds.
