beauty in branding

My friend Kandice recently informed me that Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs has a Spongebob tattoo! Wow, I had no idea he loved Sponge that much?! That takes some kind of commitment. And by the looks of it, he’s very proud of his attraction to the little guy.

In the fashion industry, where image and perception is pretty much your selling feature, I’m fascinated at the bold gesture. He obviously doesn’t care – or rather doesn’t need to care about the implication of it on his designs. The LV brand is so well-established and permanent that I’m sure he could get away with publicly loving/donning any cartoon without it affecting perception or sales.

But would publicly admiring Squarepants be damaging to the LV image? I imagine if anything it has generated discussion about him, his work, his ideas and creative process – making the brand an interesting topic of conversation. Like this blog, for instance. Whether or not it was purposefully done to promote or generate attention – what a great promotional tactic! Get a cute tattoo and watch it unfold…

Hm, I wonder if we’ll see yellow hues in the next collection?

For the full slide show click here.
Picture courtesy of the NY Times.