It's my turn to post my first thing here in Tumblr.. as a short introduction, I'm the gal who makes "the" decisions of what the store eventually does, and also takes care of the stuff that is not so nice, like accounting and taxes X)
One of the things that has altered between not-so-nice and nice has also been some of the Shining campaigns and the reactions they have sparked, and that's what my post today is about.
When we started work with Shining, we knew that's a band that raises a lot of emotions. A LOT. From mind altering dedication to world burning hatred, it's like something that leaves no-one cold, ever.
But when we started to have real live models pose for our shirts, and naturally thought it best to spread the pictures via Shining's social media.. well.
I think the result was still unexpected from our "just a normal joe & jane" point of view. :)
To tell the story in full:
Most you readers have prolly seen the girls and the musicians who've modelled for pics on the Shining fb, wearing Shining gear.
The idea started simple: we think it's cool that we get "real live photos" of the products into the store, and we like it even more that we get good looking peeps in good looking pics showing them.
So we said "let's make a campaign with as many pics as possible, and let's find male musicians and professional female models who are willing to participate"
When we introduced the idea, it was an instant green light from Niklas. We got a lot of help from Kvarforth in choosing the models, and he was kind to write detailed instructions to many about what the photos would need to look like.
Niklas also came up with the idea of introducing two campaigns via the model pics:
-"ten commandments" campaign, each with a pic and a different rule
-"murder is art and violence is fashion" campaign, each with a pic and a slogan
And then we made it happen.
We got fantastic results, and got to work with amazing people and beautiful models.
And then we started publishing them with the help of the Shining page moderators and were met with a stream of emotions we REALLY were not expecting.
In reply to the given picture, some made it very clear that they hate the band, the picture, the persons and product. Others just stated respect or adorement for the models. And a bunch always remembered to call Shining a sell out commercial shit band.
One could say it had sort of a drug like effect to see that bickering and fighting over a picture.. whether the pic is good or bad, whether you hate it or love it, whether you love or hate Shining and/or Kvarforth.
It was like watching a battle from a distance, not being able to look away, too fascinated and curious of the outcome.
After each pic got a full Shining treatment with love and hate just pouring in we were left with a "que?" on our lips and wide eyes.
How can one post bring such reactions?
What are the haters still doing on the pages?
Do you really think were THAT good with Photoshop? (we got a lot of "this is photoshopped"-comments, that we can tell you that they surely were not. If they were, we'd need to give Nelson much more credit for his job, that would've been some amazing photoshopping)
Although Kvarforth doesn't use facebook, the negative comments we told him about made us fear for our future - but instead the comments just made him snicker.
I guess he knew and wanted exactly what was going to happen.
Now after a month since the last post we give kudos for his weird promotion plan as the sales went up as the hate poured in.
Not just Kvarforth took it well - he has since said he loved and loves the campaigns - but all the models were very pro about the campaign and the reactions as well, and we thank them for that.
Especially the girls were just fabulous with their pics, we had fantastic takes from Kay Morgan, Carmin Conner, Jenny Poussin, Lora Palmer, Teresa Cerqueira, Simone Czarnach, the fantastic Anna Marine... All of the girls were fabulous with their input onto the details of the pics, and even more so with their attitude.
And the guys, well. I honestly don't think they give a shit of what's being said - most of them are tough skinned musicians, they don't care what you think, they do what they do and they do it well.. ;)
So... next time I guess we know better what were up against.
Hate is a wonderful fuel for whichever engine, Shining certainly teaches us that!
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