Posh department store Harvey Nichols were probably expecting a veritable golden shower of plaudits for their latest advertising campaign but shoppers are actually a wee bit upset instead.
For their new sale campaign, pictured above, they decided to use imagery of fashion models dressed head-to-toe in their finest, with one major difference in each shot – the model had apparently peed themselves, with the tagline “The Harvey Nichols Sale – Try to contain your excitement” featured alongside.
“We developed the campaign to promote our summer sale and capture the excitement in a light-hearted, humorous way,” a spokesman for the department store said, as the images quickly went viral.
Among the appalled shoppers was one Danielle Pierce, who told The Sun: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw the flyer, I almost did a double take.
“I know shops need to try to stand out to get attention but this is surely going too far. It could really offend people.”
“The images in our advertising were designed to be a visual representation of a well-known phrase,” added Harvey Nichols’ defensive spokesperson.
“During the production of the campaign, we researched the use of this expression in popular culture and social media and were satisfied that is both commonplace and invariably used in a playful, inoffensive manner, which was in-keeping with the tongue-in-cheek spirit in which we intended our campaign to be taken.”
Does the above shot make you want to shop at Harvey Nichols’ sale more, or less? If you’re bursting to tell us then you can leave a comment below.
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