Alexander Wang Fashion Campaign Bizarrely Enlists Doppelgängers Of Celebrities
Video screenshots via Alexander Wang
Alexander Wang’s new advertising campaign is making fashion enthusisasts do a double take—for more reasons than one. Launched to mark the reboot of the Rocco it-bag, now christened the Ricco, it’s fronted by content creators who strike remarkable similarities with famous personalities.
The label enlisted spitting images of Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Kylie Jenner, and Taylor Swift—some of whom have garnered quite the following on social media due to their uncanny appearances—to film their own reactions to the relaunched style. The video, posted to Instagram, is meant to be ironic, as Alexander Wang notes that the bag is “100% certified authentic.”
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The new Ricco retains the recognizable trapezoidal-shaped “trap” studs, but these embellishments are now 30% lighter than its predecessor. This addresses one of the main criticisms of the original Rocco bag, which was known to be quite heavy. It is available in two sizes, medium and small, with the former tagged at US$1,050, while the small size is available for US$850.
All eyes, however, are on the impersonators. Internet users are wondering why Alexander Wang couldn’t have just cast the actual A-listers, with many calling the campaign low-budget.
“Are they going broke or what?” one person remarks.
when you can’t afford the actual celebrities so you buy the great value version pic.twitter.com/PJSxa6hRwX https://t.co/y4BFUWYamI
— ¡ (@icestyledyou) May 29, 2024
One fan has given the doppelgängers nicknames like “Taylor Swoft, Kylie Gander, Ariana (Not) Grande, [and] Beyoncer.”
Another has billed the stunt as “the Andy Warholification of influencing.”
And when people buy his look alike bags will he also find it amusing? lol
— jae! (@cyberaengel) May 29, 2024
It’s a brazen move, considering how Grande—one of the insinuated figures in the advertisement—sued Forever 21 for recruiting a lookalike model to promote clothes resembling outfits from her 7 Rings music video for US$10 million in 2019. Then, the pop star argued that the clothing retailer had deliberately evoked her image to mislead fans into believing she endorsed the products.
The campaign also arrives against a backdrop where technology has made it increasingly tricky to distinguish between reality and simulation. Deepfakes, which are hyperrealistic videos that use artificial intelligence to superimpose a person's likeness onto another body, are becoming more sophisticated and pose new challenges for brands and consumers alike. The use of celebrity lookalikes, no matter if they’re made of flesh and blood, becomes even more ethically ambiguous, raising questions about authenticity.
[via The Cut, Parade, Complex, images via Alexander Wang]
