Bluenotes is a fast-fashion retail chain operating 135 stores across Canada. Targeting teenagers, fall and back-to-school draw in the most sales and revenue in comparison to other seasons.
In addition, back-to-school is an exciting yet anxiety driven time of year for young adults. Will they have friends? Will they be ‘cool’? Will they be bullied? Bluenotes wanted to take a stand and support our consumers at their time of need. We wanted them to know that nobody’s perfect, we all have flaws, and that we’re in this together. We did not retouch our models: no alterations to faces, hair, our product fits. We kept it real, we stood tall. #NoFilter. In addition, we partnered with Kids Help Phone during the fall season to support our youth and their mental health. Due to our positive campaign message and authenticity, we received a lot of positive publicity and feedback from the the marketing & retail industry, and our audience.
“Bluenotes is taking a stand against the images of perfection young people are pressured to keep up on social media. The brand’s back-to-school campaign, developed in-house, appears under the tagline “Your genes. Our jeans. No filter.” and does not use any retouching in the photographs of its models. “In this day and age, we’re all highly exposed, and our [16- to 24-year old] target lives in a world full of peer pressure and perfection,” says Asia Dizon, Director of Marketing at Bluenotes. “We wanted to stand behind them and empower them to be real and true to themselves. It’s all real, from the models themselves to how the jeans fit them. Hopefully us embracing what is real and authentic will take some of the pressure off for our customers; we all need to do our part and stand together to support our youth.”
“As consumers become more critical of images that promote unrealistic beauty ideals, fashion brands like Bluenotes are following suit by launching campaigns that feature unedited images. Although the models still sport full makeup, the lack of airbrushing and Photoshop allows the brand's consumers, who are mostly young women and men, to see that no one is as perfect as much of mainstream media has consumers believe. Asia Dizon, Bluenotes' Director of Marketing, explained the campaign by saying, "Our core consumers are teens and twenty-somethings and we wanted to lift the stereotypes and the pressure about that 'perfect image' through this authentic and unretouched campaign. We hope to inspire others to share their unfiltered images on their social channels.”