Times change and so do the things associated with those times. Braces are no longer so nerdy. This is because they have successfully been re-branded as ‘appliances’ by orthodontists. And remember those paper 3-D glasses you used to get at the movies? Those have been replaced by RealD glasses that are fashionable enough to require security guards outside the cinema exit, making sure moviegoers drop their RealDs into the collection bin.
Just like sneaking candy into the movies to avoid a concession stand shakedown, kids are resourceful, and RealDs have slipped into the mainstream. In schools, in malls, and on the street corners, kids are sporting RealDs with the lenses popped out. But RealD didn’t start the geek glasses trend.
“Geek Glasses” have been mainstream in US stores such as Claire’s http://bit.ly/hVl2cQ all this year, and the big plastic frames were already widely available two years ago in Australia, where “everybody’s wearing them” was the fashion cry and geek glasses were available at fashionistas Sportsgirl (http://bit.ly/eEr7lN), JayJays (http://bit.ly/dIe5XN), and Glassons (http://www.glassons.com/).
Actually H&M gave birth to the geek glasses revival. Way back in 2006 they were planning a campaign called ‘Beauty & the Geek’ that featured a kid sporting H&M clothes – that were for sale – and a pair of geek glasses – that were not. These glasses were the real deal (as opposed to RealD). Two out of six of the comments at the bottom of this January 2007 blog entry (http://bit.ly/fv2wnW) by Nitrolicious on H&M’s Beauty & the Geek campaign were about his glasses (“how much r toughs glasses the guy had on i luv dem?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!” / “where can we find those amazing glasses!!!”).
A multimillion-dollar trend was born. Still, no one was pushing geek glasses to the forefront until they showed up in Chris Brown’s video “Crawl” (http://bit.ly/ha2Cci) back in November 2009. Then suddenly everyone wanted them.
Where are we today? Geek glasses are available through every marketing channel and are proclaimed as an instant beauty transformation accessory. Don’t believe me? Check out this clip from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (http://bit.ly/dO3rnQ), which is squarely aimed at the target audience watching the movie through a pair of on-loan RealDs. Before a competitive brand steals their install base advantage, RealD needs to launch a channel marketing campaign selling premium geek glasses in-cinema.
As I was dropping my daughter off at middle school this morning I asked her about RealDs. “You can get them with glass lenses, even prescription,” she said. “But they don’t have to be RealDs – you can get those kinds of glasses anywhere.” True enough. “Did you know that Buddy Holly actually started the geek glasses fashion trend?” I ventured. “Who’s he?” she said.
