Last week’s Chanel Métiers d’Art show, taking over Manchester’s Northern Quarter on Thursday night, grabbed plenty of global headlines.
Perhaps the strangest was the revelation that supermodel and former muse of The Libertines’ Pete Doherty and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie shops in Aldi while on her global fashion assignments, and was spotted picking up some essentials in a Manchester branch, as well as proudly hovering around the hip bars and cafés of the city’s Ancoats area sporting an Aldi carrier bag.
The shocker hit the headlines in most of the tabloids, and had the MEN’s live blog of the event scratching its head.
You probably don’t need us to tell you this, but Moss doesn’t shop in Aldi, or at least she didn’t last Thursday in Manchester. It was a PR stunt, and ‘Moss’ was a lookalike.
McCann Manchester’s social media account director Sophie Mullins took to LinkedIn over the weekend to shatter our hopes of Moss piling in on the long-running Cuthbert vs Colin the Caterpillar cake debate before Christmas:
“How did we hijack this high fashion moment and create conversation about Britain’s most loved discount supermarket Aldi UK? Plant our very own dupe of fashion royalty Kate Moss in and around the city centre hours before the show began,” she wrote.
“From perusing the shelves of an Aldi store to being pictured with a flat white and an Aldi bag for life, our faux Kate was papped and mobbed with the Aldi logo in tow throughout, as we convinced fans that the queen of the catwalk couldn’t resist a visit to the middle aisle.
So, what did this epic stunt achieve?
- Thousands of social media engagements and shares across multiple platforms.
- Trending on X.
- National media news coverage, from the Independent to Daily Mail, The Sun and more.
- Huge reach and brand conversation throughout the build up and duration of the fashion show.
- We convinced the nation that Kate Moss shops at Aldi….for a minute
A fantastic reactive idea turned around in under 48 hours by our brilliant team at McCann Manchester & Aldi UK.”
The Aldi stunt wasn’t the only noteworthy PR jape to take place while a reported 600 invitees from the global fashion world’s great and good kept dry under a temporary glass ceiling on Thomas Street.
Manchester online travel agent On The Beach had a genius mobile ad van circulating the environs of the show, pointing out that a ‘Chanel’ handbag can be picked up £5,093 cheaper in Turkey, where it coincidentally also offers holidays to.
The company didn’t mention whether it also offers holidays to Cheetham Hill, where a similar bag can reportedly be acquired for slightly less still if you ask for ‘Dave’s mate with the bags.’
On a more serious note, Meanwhile teamed up with Maxine Peake and charity Lifeshare to launch its Autumn/Winter 2023 Collection highlighting the clothing needs of the city’s homeless as the rain poured down on those without a ticket.
