Desigual has always made irreverence a badge of identity. From its very name, the Barcelona-born label has championed difference, colour and a will to break with convention. Its origins and the spirit of its founder run through that ethos — common enough in companies with strongly stamped leadership. But being irreverent is not the same as lacking judgement. And provocation does not necessarily mean mocking from a place of scorn or ridicule.
The campaign "La cara B de Barcelona" ("Barcelona's B-side"), created to present its collaboration with Ottolinger, mistakes an uncomfortable gaze for vulgar caricature. The video piles up clichés: pickpockets, traffic, noise, pigeons, extortionate prices and bad-tempered locals. The result doesn't interrogate Barcelona so much as adopt its most frivolous point of view.
These problems, undoubtedly real, cannot be reduced, in a throwaway campaign, to a quaint anecdote. Insecurity, gentrification, an overcrowded public space or the rising cost of living cannot be flattened into a punchline. Turning these wounds into a "cheeky" backdrop for selling clothes is not social satire. It's a misjudgement, and a trivialisation. Anyone would presumably take the same stance if a brand made light of the working conditions behind its garments. But business and market ethics demand restraint.
The point they are trying to make, if there is one, is never made clear. What, exactly, is the brand's point of view on these issues? Because a brand isn't born simply to sell. From its founding it ought to know what purpose drives it and what it contributes to the place where it exists. Companies, too, are citizens of the places where they're born and where they base themselves. Desigual's roots in the Raval could have opened up a far more serious moral debate — though a far less headline-grabbing one. Because the correlation between Barcelona and Desigual, in that order, has always served the brand well. Is that what the brand does for Barcelona? Belonging cannot be a label of origin, trotted out whenever convenient to sell more. It demands care, listening and reciprocity — and even opinion, but in another format and with far more rigour.
"'La cara B' doesn't fail for showing an imperfect Barcelona, but for doing so through crudeness and a lack of affection"
It's disappointing that this outlook should come from a company that prides itself on its Barcelona roots. What has Desigual done with that legacy? Are its employees who live in Barcelona comfortable with the image it projects of their city? Purpose is also measured by whether workers can recognise themselves, with pride, in what a company says and does.
Desigual could have shown a Barcelona far removed from the postcard: spoken of its contradictions, its resilient creativity, or of those trying to make a life in a city under extraordinary pressure. Instead, it chose the easy way out: turning its conflicts into a string of jokes.
Provocation can be uncomfortable and still be intelligent. "La cara B" doesn't fail for showing an imperfect Barcelona, but for doing so through crudeness and a lack of affection. A city can laugh at itself. What's difficult to accept is a brand laughing at it while puffing out its chest for having been born there. Companies need to think through the why, the how, and only then the what (the campaign). Here, I suspect, someone skipped a few steps. Ideas are executions, and this one is a bullet through the temple for a brand that was deeply bound to the city through its scruffiest, most rebellious side. Being cheeky is not the same as being irresponsible.