As I've no doubt mentioned before, for a few years now I've been teaching a class on the history of advertising at Parsons Paris School of Art & Design. It's the type of place that attracts well-off kids from all over the world. Rarely does their entire family come from one place: the typical scenario is a child born in Hong Kong of, say, Swedish and Egyptian parents. This makes my students independent and open-minded. Every year I set them a challenge - they have to come up with a new campaign for a well-known brand. I often choose Diesel, because I wrote a book about the Italian denim pioneer a while ago and I understand its DNA quite well. My students pitch their campaigns to me and I rate them for originality and potential effectiveness. But the results are also a good indication of the way twenty-something consumers think.
The key trend that came through this year was culture. Telling a joke in advertising is no longer enough. My students came up with treasure hunts through the world's leading museums and references to abstract art. On one occasion, the campaign was a kind of puzzle, with clues embedded in posters, films and flash mob events. I particularly liked the ripped outdoor ads - a visual metaphor for ripped jeans - that resembled the work of Jacques Villeglé. Interactive, cultural, intelligent advertising has a bright future.
