RAPP Swaps Bodies for Fruit with Inclusive Campaign for Heist Bodywear

RAPP has worked with the hosiery disruptor Heist to create a bodywear campaign – that does not feature any bodies.

Heist has already challenged the staid category with its 3D loomed tights, and so did not want to follow category norms when it came time to promote its innovative product. 

As Heist co-founder Edzard van der Wyck put it: "Why do campaigns selling bodywear, lingerie or underwear to women, treat them like objects? Worse than that - objects for men to ogle. We don't want to sell bodies. We want to sell bodywear."

The problem? No matter how many body types a campaign might show, it would always alienate some (or smack of tokenism). And the conversation would always be about appearance. 

According to RAPP Executive Creative Director Ben Golik, "That's why this campaign swaps bodies, for fruit. Using prickly pineapples to show mood and beautifully veined melons to suggest age – Heist can talk about form and complexity, without being myopically focused on appearance. We've abandoned the tired clichés of a tiresome category. This campaign is positive, provocative and above all - inclusive."

Running across OOH, press, digital, and social the re-launch campaign promises these are tights for #WhateverYou – whatever shape, mood or style you might be in this minute – or the next. There are no binary decisions. Not even about gender. In fact 10% of Heist’s customers identify as male. #WhateverYou doesn’t tell people what they should look like, or sell them what they could look like. 

As van der Wyck explains, "Heist thinks very differently about how it designs tights. And RAPP's campaign thinks as differently about how to sell them."

RAPP has also created new packaging for Heist as part of the campaign.