A-style: harmless nipple-slip or unfair tactics

Around five years ago things began to move again when Bruns met influential people from the clothing industry who encouraged him to revive the image as a full-blown brand.

Clothing designer Simone Sidoti was apparently a significant influence on the evolution of Bruns’ naughty “A” into a full lifestyle brand with a collection of men's and women's fashion and availability across the world.

We approached A-style to speak to Bruns about the evolution of the brand, but have had no response. Accordingly, much of what we’ve been able to learn about the brand has been pieced together from elsewhere and will be modified as we learn more.

I’ve been writing this piece for ten days now and I’m still not sure if there’s an easy solution to the growing in-yer-faceness of subversive marketing or whether it even needs solving. I am however, a great believer in our children’s rights to grow up in the absence of such commercial sexualization of the environment – whatever your opinion might be, the role of sexual imagery in for-profit brands is an area in need of discussion.

A-style’s transition from a defiant symbol of youth to a subversive marketing powerhouse is fascinating as the logo has used it’s arresting imagery to create a commercial juggernaut. We don’t know the figures, but A-style is using a relatively small marketing budget to devastating effect in becoming known.

The brand has its roots in the disobedience and defiance movement which has always been part of Europe's street media from the time when the reformers used the first handbills to reach the people, 500 years ago. It’s an image born from the street movement which influenced millions of Europeans and it is now leveraging its brand values.

There is a strong and passionate element within European community which supports the right for the common man to have a voice via the streets. Beginning in 1991, Bruns provocative and patented A has been socialized well on the Internet but around four years ago, the brand began being systematically promoted using guerrilla media - as street stickers stuck to lamp-posts and frequently with spray paint messages being stenciled onto pavements – freely creating public advertising. There were also free events, all with a subversive theme, as the brand was emerging as a champion of the subversive marketing movement. This movement sees street art as part of the public landscape and the streets as a place where society should be reflected. The assumption is that the population is too conformist and needs to be shocked from its complacency.

The company is far from apologetic for its logo - the front page of the A-style web site carries a visual explanation of the logo's elements and how they fit together.

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