In Diesel’s ‘The Houseguests’, We’re All Invited to Become Voyeurs

“Did you ask Satan to produce this campaign?’ asks YouTube commenter @KarineTKnudsen, deftly capturing the unease one experiences watching Diesel’s spring/summer 2025 film ‘The Houseguests’.

The quaint title is quickly displaced with a sense of unease, the camera panning and zooming oddly between scenes of domestic hedonism and its characters, including none other than British media personality and model Katie Price.

The video is the latest collaboration between Diesel’s creative director Glenn Martens and art director Christopher Simmonds with both continuing on their quest to uphold the brand’s legacy of boundary-pushing campaigns. Over the years, Diesel has caused controversy with campaigns featuring two male sailors locked in a kiss as their shipmates celebrate the end of World War Two; a young man pointing a gun while text instructs parents on the importance of teaching kids to kill; and a black man diving into a ‘whites only’ pool in an apartheid-divided South Africa.

“Come in. Make yourself at home and get to know your fellow houseguests. Living in such close quarters, you’ll make friends, enemies or take a lover. Enjoy, experiment, and express yourself. There is but one house rule: we get to watch,” reads the campaign film’s description, capturing the voyeuristic viewing experience.

‘The Houseguests’ was inspired by Diesel’s spring/summer campaign from 1994 which depicted a cast of multigenerational disparate characters in a living room, shot from a bird’s eye view. The updated version, photographed by Frank LeBon, situates the gaze not only from the outside in but between all the cohabitants to comment on the nature of modern life now: everyone is watching everyone else.

When a car crashes through a wall to disturb a dinner party, the spectacle doesn’t present a horror but an opportunity for two to pose and show off their Diesel fits. No one else bats an eye. It’s an unsubtle provocation from the brand which nevertheless feels incisive – ‘one person’s disaster is another’s photo opportunity,’ it appears to comment.