Review of Diesel ‘Welcome to Successful Living’ Spring 2024 Ad Campaign by Art Director Christopher Simmonds and Photographer Johnny Dufort with Talent Aristotelis Valaoritis, Liberty Barros, Jim Arrington, Chanel Tapper, Tami Manis, Rolf Buchholz, Mariam Olayiwola, and Dalibor Jablanovic
Diesel continues to find inclusive, expressive, and delightfully weird meaning within its mantra of “Successful Living” with its Spring 2024 campaign. Envisioned by brand creative director Glenn Martens, art director Christopher Simmonds, and photographer Johnny Dufort as an ironic homage to a classic TV talent competition, “Welcome to Successful Living” has a “live” studio audience, a panel of judges, and entertainment galore.
The project continues Diesel’s partnership with Guinness World Records, resulting in game show contestants who are anything but stereotypical pageant types. Instead, these world-record holders have a thrillingly bizarre range of talents and achievements, and awesome personalities to match. There’s Aristotelis Valaoritis, GWR title holder for most wine glasses balanced on the head; Liberty Barros, who holds multiple flexibility records including most chest to floor backbends in 30 seconds; Jim Arrington, the oldest male bodybuilder at age 91.; Chanel Tapper, holder of the GWR title for the longest tongue; Tami Manis has the longest competitive mullet; Rolf Buchholz holds the record for the most body modifications; Mariam Olayiwola holds several hula hooping records including longest duration spinning 30 hoops simultaneously; and Dalibor Jablanovic has the record for the most spoons balanced on the face.
While the larger-than-life imagery effectively communicates the larger-than-life character and concept, the campaign really pops off in the accompanying video – this is a live television event we’re talking about, after all. Aping the often surreal effect of low-budget production, the trippy editing and cinematography ratchets up the impactful effect of having all of these strange and impressively confident people in one place wearing Glenn Marten’s mind-boggling deconstructed denim.
Under Martens’ creative direction, Diesel has built a one-of-a-kind identity as a champion of anti-conformity, radical inclusivity, and beautiful weirdness. Not enough brands in fashion today are weird, but here Diesel has convinced us again that this is the best thing you can be. Unapologetically individual, Diesel continues to set the bar for successfully building community, coolness, and inclusion.
Diesel Creative Director | Glenn Martens
Photographer | Johnny Dufort
Art Director | Christopher Simmonds
Talent | Aristotelis Valaoritis, Liberty Barros, Jim Arrington, Chanel Tapper, Tami Manis, Rolf Buchholz, Mariam Olayiwola, and Dalibor Jablanovic
Stylist | Ursina Gysi