What happens when two iconic brands come together? Their collaborations usually result in quite predictable products such as extravagant cars (auto + luxury), sneakers (footwear + apparel), bikes (commuter transport means + apparel) and hip bottles (soft drinks + fashion) to name but a few. Following the trend of teaming up for creating something new, SKYY Vodka and Diesel partnered to develop a new product, which is (quite surprisingly) neither jeans nor a cocktail—it is… a new swimsuit capsule collection to be unveiled this week at the beginning of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim (July 14–18, Miami).

Usually, brands put the focus on positive things while promoting its products, but sometimes they decide to forget about sweet things and dare to come close to the line, which divides the gritty criminal world and the life of model citizens—of course, only in advertising, not when doing business. Humorous or ironical advertising campaigns featuring robbers, spies, thieves, corsairs, undercover agents, peace-breakers and all sorts of baddies (barring cruel dictators) as well as their victims are showcased in this review.

‘Catch them young’ is thought to be the secret motto of all companies and brands, but as their activity proves, they are not only establishing strong ties with younger consumers from early years of their life to make them used to buying a particular product, but also support their creativity, encourage to develop eco-friendly attitude and start making contributions to the world though participating in a range of social projects devised or supported by brands. Today, we at Popsop are delving into answering the question of what marketing efforts attract representatives of Generation Z (born 1991-2002) and to some extend Generation Y (born 1981-1990).

If you can’t push your principles forward in the society where you created them, go and set up a new community to promote them. Diesel presents the follow-up of its ‘Be Stupid’ movement, which totally supports the above-stated motto, by launching ‘Diesel Island’ campaign on its website and in prints. This is a story of young adults, who are bored of keeping to the principles of the world, where common sense rules. They landed on an island (bought, not obtained by war) to “start a nation from scratch, to take what is great from the countries we know and ditch what is bad, to re-write the laws, and to right social wrongs.” Quite an ambitious goal, isn’t it?

It’s a usual thing when one brand is coming out against another one.  But are traditional trends good for Diesel? Of course, not. The brand, which is well-known for its weird and defiant campaigns (the latest one, Fresh & Bright Super Heroes is a vivid example) and unexpected collaborations, teamed up with adidas Originals to present a limited edition collection of footwear, which was launched on January 20.

Diesel promotes its new underwear collection with super (‘stupid’) power. The brand, which did it big with its extravagant, but still very appealing ‘Be Stupid’ campaign last year, is going on doing crazy things with a serious face. Recently, it presented its Spring/Summer 2011 collection under the espionage theme (heavily employed by filmmakers and graphic story authors forty years ago), and now continues with another trend, which was popular in the 70-ies. Diesel created new bizarre characters with double-meaning names or just to present the flamboyant underwear in the Fresh & Bright Superheroes campaign.

Diesel knows how to impress. In 2010, the brand was shocking the public with its controversial ‘Be Stupid’ marketing campaign, which gave tone to everything Diesel was doing last year—from new collections to out-door activities (Facepark) and collaborations with other brands (with Fiat). The new addition to Diesel’s extensive portfolio is the Spring-Summer’11 collection, which is inspired by something radically opposite to forward behavior. The essence of the new range is revolving around “espionage and adventure” and gives consumers a feeling of getting into a very heart of a spy movie.

MTV and 55DSL unveiled a series of new ‘sensual’ adverts and announced a line of T-shirts featuring tongue-in-cheek designs to celebrate the pioneering spirit of both brands. Under this initiative, six international artists created themed visuals for the tees and five motion design studios took up the story in their short animated spots, which are being aired across 63 international MTV channels starting November 8.