GANT global brand campaign explores Ivy League heritage

GANT has revealed a different side to its usually coastal brand identity with a global campaign diving into its Ivy League roots and revisiting its history as “the original shirtmakers”.

The campaign, which is being rolled out globally, uses a mix of print, film, digital and social media.

‘They changed the world. Not the shirt’

According to Caroline Roth, GANT Global Marketing Director, even during the 1950s, the clothing brand was the “number one shirt choice on Ivy League campuses”.

The new campaign comprises a one minute long brand film, which is narrated by an Ivy League-campus drycleaner owner who has witnessed almost everything – “from future presidents letting loose on the dance floor to future Nobel Prize winners losing bets”.

It is through these individuals that the film depicts GANT’s history. The film shows that these professors and students were among the first of the brand’s consumers.

BETC, GANT’s lead creative agency, developed the campaign with footage by Willy Vanderperre, directed by Stuart McIntyre and styled by Beat Bolliger.

https://youtu.be/xHOKEeLaRkg

Other mediums 

As well as the film, the campaign also involves black and white portraits of Ivy League graduates, each wearing the iconic white GANT Diamond G shirt. Those featured in the campaign are:

• The Pulitzer Prize Poet – Tracy K. Smith. Poet and Educator. (Harvard 1990–1997)
• The Pioneer Painter – Natvar Bhavsar. Abstract Artist. (University of Pennsylvania 1961–1965)
• The Rainforest Advocate – Mark Plotkin. Ethnobotanist and President of the Amazon Conservation Team. (Yale 1979–1981)
• The Eye-Opener. Jennifer Staple-Clark. Founder of Unite for  (Yale 1998–2003)
• The Prophet in Non-Profit. George Weiner. Founder and CEO of Whole Whale. (University of Pennsylvania 2001–2005)

‘Intellectual side’

Roth said of the campaign: “We’ve had a great time on the beach but our heritage demands more of us.

“There is a facet of our heritage that we have yet to tell the world about. Just as we once revolutionized the shirt, it’s now time to show the more human and intellectual side of our brand – something that already lives in our DNA.”

She added: “We celebrate brains over beauty. It is not necessarily about the curriculum but more about the accomplishments that will benefit the rest of us through ideas and innovations.”