Image via Mercedes-Benz
Every once in a while, automakers do some weird marketing campaigns, like this one from Mercedes for a new fashion collection being launched in New York City. But it’s still funny to see the German company “go full Jaguar” after the storied British luxury brand got dragged for its cringey, weird rebrand, almost like the Germans learned absolutely nothing from that debacle.
This modified Jeep is almost as weird.
Thankfully, this isn’t Mercedes-Benz doing a full rebrand or it would really be in trouble. Instead, it’s just a partnership with Moncler, a men’s luxury clothing brand known for weirdness, and NIGO, a Japanese fashion designer who launched streetwear brand A Bathing Ape.
In other words, nothing but bizarre stuff is going to come of this partnership. Yet nobody within Mercedes spoke up and said maybe it wasn’t such a great plan.
Part of me is grateful the Germans just rolled with this weird marketing campaign, which not only involves weird clothes only urbanites who pay too much for pretentious drinks and charcutier will buy, but also a limited-edition version of the G-Wagon called Past II Future (Do you get it? Isn’t that so clever?).
The limited-edition model is based off NIGO’s one-off art car and features a weird two-tone gray and green exterior. We’ve seen worse customization jobs, but this is still disappointing from a brand which has made so many beautiful cars.
Only 20 units of this atrocity have been made. Before you fret about not getting one, Mercedes wants the plebs to know we can get in on the action by ordering a Hot Wheels version to put on our shelf, so we can act like we’re part of the weird Jaguar-ish fashion campaign.
No. Thank. You.
As for the clothing, it’s described as a “fusion of 80s/90s vibes with contemporary lifestyle aesthetics.” Just reading that makes us exhausted. If your clothing is based on some complex theoretical framework, you obviously have little going on in your vacuous existence.
Thankfully, I prefer a much simpler approach to fashion because there isn’t a void I’m constantly trying to fill – it’s a much better way to live.
Images via Mercedes-Benz
