Why pay to become an ad medium?

‘Stop the sag!’ That’s the headline of the hoardings that US Senator Eric Adams put up around Brooklyn, New York. ‘Raise your pants, raise your image!’ the copy continues.

Senator Adams was railing against guys wearing their pants so low that their underwear is visible from the back. He believes that sagging pants bring down the standards of the wearer and the community at large.

One theory is that this fashion trend started in prison where one wears oversized prison uniforms without belts. I have a different theory: I think that it was started by underwear brands. They insidiously planted people on the streets to walk around dressed in this fashion to seed this whole low slung style. And soon, tipping point style, everyone was doing it. (Malcolom Gladwell, were you watching?)

Underwear brands display their branding on the elastic waistband. The sag suits them perfectly as the branding gets displayed prominently. You may have noticed that the Calvin Klein or what have you is written in ever bigger and bolder fonts these days. And wearers seem only too happy to oblige marketers by lending their behinds as free media space on which to advertise the brands.

And it is not just behinds but chests too that consumers are willing to offer as free advertising space. It is better than free actually – consumers pay to display branding when they buy a T-shirt with, say, a huge Nike swoosh.

A friend of mine used to proudly wear a T-shirt with ‘Dolce & Gabbana’ emblazoned across the front. That is, until someone came up to her, stared at her chest and said, ‘Oh, yours have names? Hello!’ Clothes, watches, sunglasses, bags – they are all ad media that we willingly pay to swathe ourselves in. We turn ourselves into walking-talking advertising mannequins, brand ambassadors who pay for the privilege.

Why do we do it? We are, after all, not cattle who are forcibly branded.

The crux of it is that humans have a deep need to belong. And wearable brands give us that sense of belonging. They make us feel like a part of something bigger – and possibly better – than ourselves. They serve the role that body painting and tribal markings played in older societies.

Thus, brands have become the membership markings for us modern-day tribals; protective talismans for the insecure times we live in.

(The author is Executive Creative Director, South Asia)