AS I am researching this topic to include in my lecture next week, I want to share some interesting things I have found out with you, my dear readers.
Sonic branding – it is the stuff our windows PCs are made of when we start it up, what makes (some of) us love McDonald’s or know that a 20th Century Fox movie is starting. Yes, these are all familiar sounds, forever engraved in our minds and representative of the brands they are attributed to.
But how does it work for fashion? Fashion rarely makes use of repetitive jingles, perhaps because fashion is built on the concept of always presenting something new, something fresh, something yet unthought of. However, fashion DOES use music to its full advantage! Think of the famous Levi’s commercial which my dear friend John Altman arranged the music for.
“Levi’s Engineered Jeans were promoted in 2002 in “Odyssey”, a TV commercial that has come to be known as a classic. A young man (played by French actor Nicolas Duvauchelle) opens a door, steps back and emotionally prepares himself for the odyssey. And then he runs. Through the door, through the wall of the next room, and the room after. As he continues to burst through one empty room after another he is joined by another runner, a woman (played by Antoinette Sugier). Finally they stop, breathless. They catch a glance at each other, preparing for the next stage of the journey. It’s through the exterior brick wall, out into the forest, up the trees and into the sky. The text: “Levi’s Engineered Jeans. Freedom to move. levi.com”.” (Levi’s ‘Odyssey’ was the first major project delivered by special effects production company Framestore CFC since its inception at the end of 2001.)
The beautiful music was produced by Jeff Wayne and arranged by John Altman. The music is Handel’s ‘Sarabande’ from the Suite in D minor for solo harpsichord. John Altman employed a late-classical chamber orchestra — 22 strings, flute, clarinet, bassoon, three French horns and timpani.
This is a classic example of fusing – erm, classical music with fashion to get a very specific brand experience across.
But now lets fast forward a decade and a half to 2016, when Uniqlo (one of my favourite Japanese brands) made a fantastic music video to accompany their flagship store launch in London on Oxford Street. The campaign is created by Faster Horses and what they managed to do in this commercial is to capture the very unique spirit of London through visuals and sound. They used a German DJ named Konstantin Sibold: https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/konstantinsibold [this has a great sound cloud link so you can sample his art] for the music and 8 individual dancers whose sequences were choreographed by Lukas McFarlane. They actually used derelict buildings and passages with graffiti all over London to make it authentic, unique and more cutting edge.
I hope the link works and you can watch their “This way to Utopia” commercial and I would love to hear your thoughts on this. What emotions does the video evoke? What do you make of the soundtrack?
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