Dive Brief:
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A video of strangers kissing for the first time, made for the clothing company Wren, went viral this week, getting more than 46 million views on YouTube by Friday morning.
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The video was commissioned by fashion designer Melissa Croker, Wren’s founder and creative director, to feature her fall collection and starred friends who were actors and models who worked for free.
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The project was part of a video series by style.com to enable clothing companies that lack the money for a Fashion Week runway show to show off their wares.
Dive Insight:
The video “First Kiss” was a sensation this week, going viral and spiking interest in Wren’s clothing and the music it featured. It also attracted some scorn, especially when people realized it was a corporate promotion, and quickly inspired parodies starring puppies and kittens. Despite the disappointment many felt once it was clear the project was not so much an experiment in human encounters as an ad for clothing, it was a lesson for retailers in how cheaply a company can garner attention. “She gets better attention here than an actual fashion show during Fashion Week,” fashion guru André Leon Talley told the New York Times. “You can’t reach 40 million viewers in an 11- to 15-minute fashion runway presentation.”