For some reason, ever since JWT’s “I am myself” campaign for Le Mall in Beirut landed on Communicate’s desk, we’ve been thinking of Zoolander.

The 2001 film is an unsubtle satire on the modeling industry, featuring Ben Stiller as three-time male model of the year Derek Zoolander. Derek’s career consists of fulfilling one ridiculous and predictable image after another, so much so that his life’s purpose has become simply to be “professionally good looking” in various guises.

Watch the intro to the “I am myself” Web site for the first time, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching extras from the Zoolander DVD. Good-looking people enact a variety of very obvious clichés in the name of their modeling careers, each one with an explanatory label. So we have the hippy chick walking the flowery meadow (“I am a pacifist”), the BMX bike rider (“I am a freestyler”), the clubber girl (“I am a hedonist”) and so on… in fact you can probably guess most of the others without seeing them. And when we finally get to the Web site? The rather predictable “I am a Web site.”

The message of this campaign is a bit of a contradiction in terms. It basically seems to be: “We must all look as individual and different as possible, and we must do this by all shopping at the same place.”

And while we’re at it, we’ll all try to live up to a few of these clichés as well. The naturalist, the vegetarian, the player, the rebel… these people are all so different, but they all look so good. The desired response is presumably “I must look as individual and as good as them.”

Are we really so shallow we will try to fulfill our sense of individualism by copying a bunch of great looking, but very obvious, clichés? Hasn’t the industry evolved beyond these messages yet? Sadly, it probably hasn’t. In fact in all likelihood, this campaign is right on the button. Deep down we all still crave that individual look, albeit one that’s socially sanctioned by shopping in the same malls and in all the same stores.

So while it’s not highly original, the campaign does, on some level, tap into this deep-seated desire. The execution is of an excellent standard – a bit of time and money has obviously been spent and there are some nice touches. From the PR stunt where identical “copycat” models hit the streets of the Lebanese capital, to the freebie cameras they handed out, to lipstick messages on bathroom mirrors, it’s smart. Maybe a bit too smart.

Because there is another inherent contradiction at the heart of “I am myself.” Essentially the campaign is also saying: what you buy doesn’t define you, you define yourself. So define yourself by buying stuff here.
 
A glance at some of the slogans used in the campaign leaves Communicate a little confused (not for the first time, we concede). What does “Are you what you eat or are you what you wear?” even mean? Other slogans include the posters: “You look like a copy of a copy of a copy.” Or the lipstick mirror messages: “Practice more on your bedroom mirror.” Ouch, what did we ever do? Communicate’s make-up is just fine, thank you very much. It’s a novel approach, though; insult your consumer into submission.

The “fashion victim” bit, featuring white body outlines on the pavements around Beirut, is a clever idea but surely not really what you want to use to promote fashion brands? Fashion victims are exactly who you want to be speaking to. Communicate continues to be confused.

Ultimately Derek Zoolander looked great but yearned for something more (“a school for kids who can’t read good,” as it turned out), and to some extent that’s how this campaign leaves you. Contradictions aside it’s as slick as they come. But we’re in the middle of a recession; most people are more concerned with how much money is in their pocket than whether they have the same t-shirt as the neighbor. Surely consumers need more than the old “Everyone shop here to look individual” message?

That said, the execution is almost certainly good enough that the target audience will overlook or forgive the campaign’s flaws. But, as Zoolander says, “Do you ever think there must be more to life than just being really, really, ridiculously good looking?” Apparently, JWT and Le Mall think not.