ITS#EIGHT

30 years and still no sign of aging. On the contrary. Diesel is younger than ever, it continues growing and turning creative ideas into real products and there is no sign that the successful living started in 1978 by Renzo Rosso is ever going to quit. So 2008 - Diesel's 30th Anniversary - doesn't represent an arrival point. It's the perfect excuse to involve the whole world and organise the biggest party ever!!!

The date everybody marked on their calendars was 11 October 2008. Rumours about the celebrations started several months before that, with people wondering what would pop out of Diesel?s magic top hat this time. As the crucial date got closer a series of guerilla advertising actions increased the hype. The first one was inspired by the hardcore reference that the number 30 brings to mind if you write it in roman numbers (XXX): Diesel came up with a tremendously funny video made up of several clips from porn movies of the seventies with cartoon inserts to smartly change the real sense of the scene and hide the "hot spots". The video hinted to the "XXX date" several times, pointing out 11 October 2008. Some people were offended by the video, others found it amazing, others just found it stupid. The fact is that (and this was the true objective) everyone was talking about it!

Then came the presentation in New York of the book "XXX Years of Diesel Communication" written by Kevin Roberts (CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi), that tells everything there is to know about Diesel?s 30 years of revolutionary communication.
After that, Piazza Duomo in Milan became the stage for a Diesel "flash mob". A flash mob is when several people organise and gather suddenly in a public space to perform an unusual action in a brief lapse of time and then spread out and just disappear, with the only intention of doing something out of the ordinary that leaves passers-by puzzled. A huge number of people dressed up like dustmen in white suits with brooms pretended to clean up the central square of Milan preparing it for the arrival of "Dirty Thirty", the limited edition jeans celebrating the thirty years of the brand.The "Dirty Thirty" jeans were sold in 160 selected Diesel stores in the world for one day only, Saturday 10 October 2008, the day before the global party. A symbolic retail price of 30 Euros and only 30,000 pieces (sold out) for a pair of jeans with a unique "dirty washing", personalised with "1978 - 2008" embroidery and with limited edition "Diesel 1978" buttons.

These communication actions increased the hype in such a way that the day of the celebrations huge crowds presented themselves outside the selected venues: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Beijing, Copenhagen, Dubai, Helsinki, London, Milan, Munich, New York, Oslo, Paris, São Paolo, Stockholm, Tokyo, Zurich. 17 cities for an unbelievable global party that started and ended in New York following world time zones!! Over 18 hours of world partying transmitted live directly on the Diesel website!! The list of artists and DJs who answered Diesel's call to come and play at the parties was impressive both in names and numbers. It is impossible to list them all so we'll just tell you some of the hottest names: N*E*R*D, 2ManyDJs, Hot Chip, Modeselektor, Earth Wind & Fire, Booka Shade... Amazing!!The news we received from the Milan Venue are the following: traffic completely jammed, thousands of people waiting outside of the venue way before the XXX beginning at 10pm, incredible performances and dances on stage and a heterogeneous crowd with people of all sorts. Successful living is for everyone, not for selected few!!

Congratulations Renzo... how is it possible you find a way to surprise us every time??