Arnold Amsterdam Makes Druggy Dinners For Stussy

Arnold Amsterdam Makes Druggy Dinners For Stussy/FreshCotton

After their well-regarded and eyebrow-raising 'Strip for Likes' campaign for Stüssy Amsterdam, ad agency Arnold Worldwide had the difficult task of following it up with something equally arresting. The answer was 'BAKED', a campaign centred around the Spring Collection Lookbook from top European online fashion store FreshCotton.com's (itself offering an exclusive launch of a special edition Stüssy Amsterdam tee). The twist – the video lookbook was more of a video cookbook… with some particularly unconventional ingredients.

Featuring haute cuisine done Amsterdam style, the films presented a series of recipes using a wide variety of street-legal drugs as ingredients. From well-known marijuana to more esoteric buzzes, heavily tattooed Chef Misha Sukyas sports the exclusive Stüssy Amsterdam tee while demonstrating how to make truly mind-blowing haute cuisine. In addition, anyone can download the recipes as a PDF for their tablet. The unconventional topic obviously worked, with sales having already increased by 23% since the launch of the campaign.

We caught up with Arnold Creative Director Colin Lamberton and Rickard Engstrom & Joris Kang'eri, creatives on the project, to find out how they conspired to create the cheekiest of cookbooks.

When did you come up with the concept for a 'naughty' cook book? Is it something that had been percolating for a while and found a home with Stüssy, or was it created specifically for the brand?

We did 'Strip For Likes' for Stüssy, and we had discussed doing something for Autumn 2012. When we showed them 'Baked' they thought it was perfect for the FreshCotton x Stüssy Amsterdam project, and introduced us to the FreshCotton team.

Were you hesitant in following up the popular 'Strip For Likes' campaign? Did you ever worry that the project was going to have an 'It's just Stüssy being edgy' stigma?

No, we work with small budgets so we try to something interesting to the target audience, but also relevant. We think it fits pretty well with both FreshCotton and Stüssy brands, and people seem to be interested…

How were Stüssy when you approached them with the idea?

Stüssy in the US were kept informed throughout, because we focused on their T-shirt, but it was a FreshCotton project and they were really into it. They liked the mixture of high-end cooking, experimentation and being a little bit cheeky.

Were you there for the shoot? Did you try the food? Did you get home safely?!?

We invited a lot of friends down to try the food, and some of us tried it. Several people reported a very gentle, nice warm buzz, some people were really tripping. But because we'd tried a few different things we couldn't be sure what ingredients were causing what effects.

Who was the chef that put the food together? Where did you find him? Did he have a history of cooking with less 'conventional' ingredients?

Misha is a friend of ours from Amsterdam. He's a really highly regarded chef who has cooked in top-notch restaurants around the world. He's just moved to Milan to open a restaurant that does focus on experimental techniques, but maybe not such experimental ingredients…
 

What's the ideal impact for the campaign (apart from brand awareness)? Tabloid coverage? Home cookin'?

We wanted to raise awareness, and hopefully sales of the exclusive Stüssy Amsterdam T-shirt, general awareness of FreshCotton as being a great place to buy clothes, and also see if we could get people to come through to the website to buy clothes.

Were you conscious that the campaign might reinforce the druggier elements of the Amsterdam stereotype?

We think it's done in a way which takes that stereotype to a more interesting place.

What's next with you guys and Stüssy? Any other taboo-pushing you have your eye on?

Hopefully we will do something new with FreshCotton for the Autumn season, and we are also hoping to do a 'Baked' Live Event in the coming months…

You can check out the full 'BAKED' site here - baked.freshcotton.com

Posted on 16th April, 2013