Faux OOH: The New “Reality” of Fashion Marketing

Wait, Is This S#!% Real???

POV: you’re lying in bed scrolling through TikTok after a long day of classes, and you see cars shaped as Jacquemus Le Bambino handbags rolling through the streets of Paris (see Figure 1). You immediately open Safari and google “Jacquemus cars real?” To your slight disappointment, you find that it’s not real –it’s computer generated imagery. It seems that you have found yourself in the era of everything-is-not-what-it-seems marketing.

Figure 1: Still from CGI video of Jacquemus handbags driving through Paris (Abad)

Figure 2: Faux OOH Maybelline mascara yassifying London Underground (Musen)

It's not just Jacquemus. Maybelline came out with a CGI campaign featuring giant false lashes on a subway car passing through a giant mascara wand in the London tube (see Figure 2). And it doesn’t end there. Alexander Wang seemingly hung a ginormous mesh bra from the Manhattan Bridge while Victoria Beckham graciously gifted the Statue of Liberty a fashionable new handbag (see Figure 3). In addition, Isabel Marant dropped a massive tube of toothpaste from the sky and squirted a mountain of toothpaste in front of their store.

Figure 3: Lady Liberty sporting a fresh new look thanks to Victoria Beckham (Instagram)

Faux OOH

This new phenomenon in the world of fashion marketing is known as “Faux OOH”. Designers incorporate CGI coupled with elements of surrealism in their social media advertisements which creates an augmented reality. This technique allows marketers to blur the lines of reality to advertise their products in the “real” world in an artistic and unconventional fashion.

Limitless Opportunity

The use of Faux OOH allows for an advertisement format which has no limits. One that transcends reality and is unconstrained by laws of the physical world. It has a much wider reach than traditional out-of-home advertising techniques such as billboards because they allow anyone with access to the internet the opportunity to come across your ad. On top of that, utilization of Faux OOH marketing minimizes financial restraints. It eliminates capital requirements to create physical advertisements and utilize physical spaces, such as building permits and other resources necessary to create the ads. Instead, creators can make any ad using digital interfaces and simply post it on TikTok.

Delivering the WOWs

Why is Faux OOH marketing so compelling to consumers? Maybelline’s VP of marketing, Fernando Febres, claims this unorthodox marketing strategy is, “a way to honestly disrupt the environment and get people talking, and wondering, ‘Is it real or is it not?’” Consumers are inherently intrigued by the unexpected, and Faux OOH provides that wow-factor. These ads distort consumers’ perception of reality and create a lasting impression of shock and delight. I personally could not stop thinking about those Jacquemus purse cars. These ads are creative, shareable, and incredibly captivating, making them excellent marketing vessels.

Final Thoughts

In a world being taken over by CGI and AI, marketing as we once knew it has gone through a total re-brand. The computer generated imagery that has dominated our cinema and television consumption has now crossed over into the realm of ad consumption. It’s out with the sexy couple sporting Calvin Klein underwear plastered on subway walls and in with a 3-dimensional Barbie stepping out of her 2,000-foot box next to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Fashion marketing has leveled up.

References

Abad, Mario. “How Jacquemus’ Viral Bags-On-Wheels Stopped Traffic.” Paper, 7 April 2023. https://www.papermag.com/jacquemus-purse-cars#rebelltitem4

Cole, Margherita. “Massive 3D Barbie Steps Out of Her Box Next to the Burj Khalifa in Viral Video” My Modern Met, 26 July 2023. https://mymodernmet.com/3d-barbie-next-to-burj-khalifa/

Madovermarketing_mom. Instagram, 12 September 2023. https://www.instagram.com/p/CxFlL4XyCIl/

McCoy, Kimeko. “What Maybelline’s ‘faux OOH’ ads say about the future of advertising in augmented reality” Digiday, 11 August 2023. https://digiday.com/marketing/what-maybellines-faux-ooh-ads-say-about-the-futu re-of-a dvertising-in-augmented-reality/

Musen, Maddie. “People are Losing Their Minds Over This Mascara Brand Stunt on the London Underground” The Standard, 8 July 2023. https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/maybelline-mascara-london-undergroun d-tube-bus-wand-makeup-eyelash-b1092978.html

Radcliffe, Dom. “Faking It: The Rise of Faux OOH Advertising.” Little Black Book, 8 September 2023. https://www.lbbonline.com/news/faking-it-the-rise-of-faux-ooh-advertising

“From giant Barbie to mascara, recent CGI ads bring a new wave of OOH advertising.” Social Samosa, 12 August 2023. https://www.socialsamosa.com/2023/08/giant-barbie-mascara-recent-cgi-ads/