What motivates people in terms of health issues, from diabetes to smoking, can be a fascinating topic - all the more so for anyone with marketing on the brain. So, I'm guessing a lot of us take note of any new approach or ad campaign that might inspire change for the broader populations dealing with such concerns.


It was with that in mind that I considered the newly launched, and already much-discussed, No-L-ita jeans, "No. Anorexia." campaign (created by Oliviero Toscani). Note: the images are hard to see, so be prepared if you decide to check out the site.
As reported by Rosamaria Mancini (with contributions from Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan and Christina Passariello) in the Wall Street Journal, the Flash&Partners Group (Tombolo, Italy) brand is using controversial images of a 27-year old, emaciated, nude woman for the effort. The images are indeed shocking, but there may be something more to it.
I dug back into my copy of Robin Hood Marketing</em> by Katya Andresen to see how she described the steps taken in developing the American Legacy Foundation's anti-smoking campaign for youth (truth).
Andresen describes how to connect causes to values of the audience rather than the needs of the organization. In that case, the teenagers were more likely to act on their values (to protest against big tobacco companies that were manipulating them) than they were to care one iota about the Foundation's grander goal to keep them from smoking. Same end, different means.
So, if a cause marketer is more likely to achieve a step in the right direction (toward an end goal) by appealing to the audience based on their values, perhaps the No-L-ita campaign, though shocking to a lot of people outside the core audience, will very effectively reach its specific target, young women, around their values. Hmmm. (Note: I realize that No-L-ita may well see traditional sales-increase results from the "No. Anorexia." effort, but wanted to isolate the cause aspect here.)
I will continue to mull it all over, and hope to explore this No-L-ita approach more via an interview with Katya Andresen in the near future (Or, you can also join the MarketingProfs book group which happens to be reading Robin Hood Marketing right now).
In the meantime, maybe we should all take the words of someone who should know, as quoted in the WSJ article, under consideration:
"Diane von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, who spearheaded the discussion in the U.S. about the issue of ultrathin models, saw the ad featured on a TV news segment in Paris, where she is planning for her fall 2008 collection. 'It's a horrible picture, but I think it may be very good in the end,' she said."