Van Heusen Partners With Funny or Die for New Campaign

Men's clothing brand Van Heusen has partnered with comedy website Funny or Die to attract so-called schlubs with humor and football in the latest iteration of its Institute of Style campaign.

Men’s clothing brand Van Heusen has partnered with comedy website Funny or Die to attract so-called schlubs with humor and football in the latest iteration of its Institute of Style campaign.

According to Van Heusen, the Institute of Style is designed to help American men step up their style. The latest video collaboration, which launched November 18 on VanHeusen.com, features NFL legends Steve Young and Jerry Rice, along with Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.

In September, Stafford was added to the Van Heusen Institute of Style campaign as the latest student to go from style trainee to graduate. In the most recent video, Stafford passes on the lessons he learned from Young and Rice to an everyday schlub as the schlub learns what it takes to dress the part to land a small business loan.

In keeping with the football theme, the Van Heusen website also features five Style Playbooks on topics like “Friday Night Brights” and “First and Fitted,” that feature brief advice on what to wear as well as slideshows with related images.

Van Heusen’s Facebook page, which has 53,000 fans, features Institute of Style and related content that has been posted periodically since at least January 2011. This includes: contests, Stafford’s acceptance speech, an Institute of Style graduation speech, and Flickr photos.

A Van Heusen rep was not available for comment.

In a prepared statement, Mike Kelly, executive vice president of marketing for Van Heusen parent company PVH Corp., says, “Collaborating with Funny or Die for the Institute of Style is the perfect way to bring together sports, style and humor, three things that resonate with our target consumer.”

The latest video has 535 likes on Facebook and 128,000 views on Funny or Die.

Another Institute of Style video posted on YouTube in April 2011 has about 6,600 views.

A teaser commercial designed to look like a feature film trailer aired on NBC’s November 18 broadcast of Sunday Night Football, driving fans to VanHeusen.com to view the video in full and explore the site. Additional promotion includes distribution across sports and lifestyle sites, as well as a dedicated microsite on Funny or Die and promotion surrounding the video on both Funny or Die and PVH’s owned sites.

Apparel company PVH owns and markets the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands. In addition to Van Heusen, it also markets goods under its own brands – Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, IZOD, ARROW, Bass, and G.H. Bass & Co. – and its licensed brands, including Geoffrey Beene, Kenneth Cole New York, Kenneth Cole Reaction, MICHAEL Michael Kors, Sean John, Chaps, Donald J. Trump Signature Collection, JOE Joseph Abboud, DKNY, Ike Behar, and John Varvatos.

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