Dress Normal.

A Gap press release this week announced its plan to “celebrate individuality by Challenging the convention of dressing normal”. Their message to consumers? Dress Normal. That’s right, normal… I understand where they’re coming from, Being comfortable in your clothing allows the individual to let their personality be what expresses their individuality. Right? ‘Cause thats the normal way to express yourself. They also state that they understand that everyones version of normal is different. Normal isn’t one size fits all. They do seem to think that they encapsulate normal pretty well. 

I can see how this approach might actually work for the Gap. It seems to be a pretty accurate description of their target demographic. Stephen Sunnucks, Gap Global president said “We were inspired by the bold and honest spirit of the millennial generation; their authenticity is what makes them stand apart in today’s complex world,” . The honesty works for me but the message doesn’t seem to be one to inspire the ones who inspired it. “Millennials” and “Hipsters” are two concepts I can’t seem to understand. They are umbrella terms that generalize groups of people who appear to be vaguely similar based on a few generic identifiers. A generation of super consumers, raised on technology, with an eye for inauthenticity. I doubt this campaign will do much in the way of inspiring millennials, I think they are a group of individuals capable of seeing through the seasonal ad campaigns, and see straight to the authenticity that makes a brand theirs, or their parents. To quote a friend of mine, Pete Townshend, “I hope I die before I get old, Talkin’ ‘bout my generation.”