For his latest collaboration, Pharrell Williams teams up with artist Ryan McGinley to shoot his Adidas Originals campaign. The musician and entrepreneur’s newest ad campaign in his ongoing partnership with Adidas features smiling millennials, of both genders and various ethnic backgrounds, forming two lines to represent the mathematical symbol for equality.
Using the marketing space as a springboard to promote gender and racial equality, the images bring to mind United Colors of Benetton’s 2011 campaign when the fashion label featured world leaders kissing each other in an ad series titled “Unhate.”
Although far less controversial than Benetton’s campaign, it is expected that renaissance man Pharrell, producer of “Happy” and coach on The Voice, and Ryan McGinley, creator of the color-block portrait series, “Yearbook,” would create content that is aesthetically very pretty, and for lack of a better word, happy. After all, the special collection includes the iconic track jacket in satin selling for 150 euros, or a leather version for 1,500 euros. Fans can also get their hands on the much-trending Stan Smith sneaker in a quirky felt material to emulate the actual feel of a tennis ball.
Customers will be able to purchase these goods in stores on October 31st, with another release of new products in late November. This is not the first campaign the duo has worked on together, let alone Pharrell’s first foray into art (see “Pharrell Curating New Perrotin Show“), so fashion and art aficionados can definitely expect more where this came from.