Gucci takes a dip into the ever-dangerous world of memes to promote its watches

Andy Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame mantra arguably applies to meme culture with Salt Bae, Tiny Trump, Cash Me Ousside, Howbow Dah? and Roll Safe, already being usurped by more recent memes despite landing only earlier this year.

This domain the fashion brand has chosen to embrace has proven dangerous for other brands - a notable example being House of Fraser's Emojinal campaign.

The work proved divisive online - but is far reaching – having been created to expand the reach of Gucci timepieces into a new audience “a wider creative community than that which traditionally locates around the world of fashion."

Below is just some of the posts - they can all be viewed here.

#TFWGucci @egeislekel appropriates sculptures and paintings from art history to make his graphic works. Both referential and completely contemporary, they delight in the collision of popular culture and fine art. As a visual joke, Islekel superimposes van Gogh’s visage over famous album covers. His #TFWGucci memes play with Neo-Classicist paintings, brought to life by captions from @youvegotnomale and @champagneemojis that namecheck art history as well as 21st century romance. - Text by @helenh0lmes #LeMarchédesMerveilles. Discover more through link in bio.

A post shared by Gucci (@gucci) on Mar 21, 2017 at 8:31am PDT

Sooo...what are we? @Gucci

A post shared by V Δ P O R C U L T (@vaporcult) on Mar 21, 2017 at 9:16pm PDT

#TFWGucci In 2007, Loukia Alavanou won the Greek DESTE Prize for her work that often incorporates historical artifacts into multimedia videos. For #TFWGucci, Alavanou mingles past and present with vintage photographs collaged with one of Gucci’s symbols, a lion to create a composite artwork. The video is captioned by @champagneemojis. Fashion, after all, is timeless — whatever your watch says. - Text by @kchayka #LeMarchédesMerveilles. Discover more through link in bio.

A post shared by Gucci (@gucci) on Mar 21, 2017 at 2:19am PDT

#TFWGucci Sebastian Tribbie Matheson @Youvegotnomale is a ruthless meme maker. The snark starts with his account’s name. In between taking selfies and posting them to his 40,000 followers on Instagram, he creates images that take aim at popular fashion and social culture. No target is safe, from ordering on Seamless to cliché emoji usage. Here, Sebastian uses the starter pack meme, in which a group of images and objects are clustered together to represent the stereotype of a particular style or personality. For #TFWGucci he takes on Gucci, adopting the brand’s recent hallmarks, like embroidery, patches, and 70s glasses. @harinef and @petrafcollins make appearances, as does the #LeMarchédesMerveilles timepiece. Gucci = owned. — Text by @kchayka. Read more through link in bio.

A post shared by Gucci (@gucci) on Mar 20, 2017 at 11:24pm PDT

#TFWGucci Limbs merge, torsos twist, flesh morphs and transforms – the work of Danish-born, New York-based artist @asgercarlsen reminds us that the human body is a strange place. His signature black-and-white photographs portray a mundane scene interrupted by a bizarrely-distorted figure, with an underlying sense of comic absurdity. This is highlighted for #TFWGucci by the mischievous @cabbagecatmemes, who brings a wry wit to Asger’s work to satirize the funhouse mirror of modern beauty standards. – Text by @newterritories. Discover more through link in bio.

A post shared by Gucci (@gucci) on Mar 20, 2017 at 9:19am PDT

#TFWGucci The new generation of future-forward Gulf creativity, @christto_andrew is a dynamic duo making eye-popping images from their studio in Doha, Qatar. Christto Sanz and Andrew Weir hail from Puerto Rico and South Africa, respectively, and came together in 2012 to collaborate on bold photography and moving images that challenge perceptions about the Middle East, blending traditional symbols with jewel-toned surrealism. For #TFWGucci, they introduce us to a mysterious fashionista who holds a flaming rose while she casually checks her #LeMarchédesMerveilles watch. In the words of the viral but never basic @beigecardigan, she’s just too fire to waste time. – Text by @newterritories Read more through link in bio.

A post shared by Gucci (@gucci) on Mar 19, 2017 at 9:29am PDT

An opinion column published in Fashionista addressed when brands adopt memes, critical of Gucci's efforts: "When big businesses try to attract younger customers (we see you, Gen Z) in order to make a profit, it comes off as cringe-worthy, awkward and, to be honest, a lot less fun."

There's been a degree of backlash from social media users, here's some of the negativity leveraged towards the campaign on Twitter - where Gucci also pushed it.

I'm sure it sounded dope while brainstorming but Guccis meme campaign is one of the lamest things I've ever seen. Catch this L Gucci pic.twitter.com/QS9ear1xqL

— Muchi4TheKids (@Sipho_Says) March 21, 2017

Didn't realise Gucci became a fckin meme account pic.twitter.com/fcMh7ThoGE

— saz (@saraalisa_) March 17, 2017

gucci posting a meme on insta and then explaining the meme in the caption is the weirdest thing i have seen recently tbh pic.twitter.com/TsO3AWMbMJ

— maureen (@mowietecha) March 22, 2017

@gucci using memes as a marketing tool are like dads who try to be hip and cool to bond with their kids

— (@MiltMiltLu) March 19, 2017

Gucci is appropriating our sacred internet culture by capitalizing off of memes. what a time to be alive™ https://t.co/YdXdxnGHXo

— Kelsey Steck (@kelseysteck) March 19, 2017