Harvey Nichols uses CCTV footage of real shoplifters caught red-handed in new advert

 
A man brazenly pockets an item of expensive jewellery Picture: Harvey Nichols
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Their faces may have been obscured to spare their blushes but these shoplifters have still found infamy — as the stars of Harvey Nichols’ latest advertising campaign.

The video for the retailer’s Love Freebies? Get Them Legally drive shows real CCTV footage of the thieves — their faces covered with cartoons — taking clothing, jewellery and beauty items from its store in Knightsbridge.

In the footage, the shoplifters are chased by security, wrestled to the ground and put in a holding room. The campaign, launched today, also shows guards pursuing actresses.

The advert is by adam&eveDDB, the firm behind John Lewis Christmas campaigns including last year’s Monty The Penguin.

Harvey Nichols has faced criticism over some of its previous adverts. Its 2011 Walk Of Shame campaign featured dishevelled women sheepishly heading home from a one-night stand and ended with a model striding back confidently in the store’s womenswear.

The Advertising Standards Authority received complaints but did not ban the advert, while observing some might find it “distasteful”.

The following year, the watchdog received 94 complaints about the store’s Try To Contain Your Excitement campaign, showing models with wet patches around their crotches. It ruled in favour of the advert but noted the images were “nonetheless unusual”.

In 2013 the store’s more family-friendly Sorry I Spent It On Myself Christmas campaign implied customers only had money left over to buy their relatives plugs, pens and doorstops.

Last Christmas, its Could I Be Any Clearer? advert encouraged customers to send e-cards to their loved ones telling them exactly what they wanted, in explicit detail.

A woman flees security
Harvey Nichols

Its latest campaign has been released to mark the new Rewards By Harvey Nichols app, which offers discounts and experiences to customers for every pound they spend.

Shadi Halliwell, the store’s group creative and marketing director, said the campaign played on the idea that, until the launch of the app, the only way to get a freebie from the store was to shoplift. She said: “We wanted to create a campaign which plays on the universal truth that everybody loves a freebie.”

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