North Vancouver clothing store fakes break-in for ad campaign
A North Vancouver clothing store orchestrated a fake break-in on social media as part of a new promotional campaign.
Basico Branco, which the website states is a “premium wholesale clothing line with sustainability at its core,” posted a video on Instagram last week describing a break-in at its North Vancouver showroom and studio.
“While we were in Portugal, someone broke into our studio,” designer Austin Ottone, says in the video.
“They basically emptied out our showroom,” Ottone adds.
The video is very serious in tone, and based on the comments, it had fooled pretty much all of Basico’s followers.
“Sending good vibes will be on the lookout for sure,” one follower said.
Another apparel company, Sparrow Handmade, left a note, saying, “This is brutal — so sorry this happened to you. So distressing for you!”
In total, there are over 200 comments in response.
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One day later, another video was shared, which was comical in nature, revealing that the whole thing was a prank.
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“So it’s fake?” one user asked in a comment on second video.
“You guys made us feel bad 🙄,” another follower said.
Others weren’t as concerned and applauded the campaign from the Canadian brand.
Based on the new branding on the Basico Branco website, and what we’ve been told directly by the brand, the stunt was to launch a month-long Black Friday sale promo campaign.
Basico Branco
We asked North Vancouver RCMP if any wrongdoing was committed with the stunt, but were informed that it’s only a crime if a false report was made to police.
We also asked Basico directly about the stunt and here’s what they had to say.
“We’re all jokesters and love having fun making engaging content. This was also inspired to make light of a previous break in that occurred earlier this year,” a Basico representative told Daily Hive.
“The majority of our network and social media followers know our humour already and also, if you look at our feed — we’re always having a good time and poking fun,” they added.
“We created the three-part content piece with the intent to roll into our Black Friday sale announcement.”
Basico said the initial plan was to roll it out over the course of a week but the response was so immediate and they received such an outpouring of messages, they pushed the announcement date forward and gave people who messaged an early discount.
What do you think of the prank and campaign? In poor taste or all in good fun? Let us know in the comments.