A-style: harmless nipple-slip or unfair tactics

There were a few of us sat around watching the MotoGP last Sunday - it was the A-style Grand Prix of Japan and we were all enthralled in watching Valentino Rossi, the highest paid sportsperson in the world, wrest back his crown. Then Olivier declared, "clever logo." I'd seen the "A-Style" logo several times and hadn't noticed anything particularly clever, so I asked, "why is it clever?" Ollie grabbed the remote control and backed up the high def video stream until there was a sponsor logo visible on the screen and asked everyone if they could see what he could see. A-style is an Italian brand which came to international prominence in 2007 when it began sponsoring globally televised MotoGP events. Can you see what Olivier could see?

Perhaps due to context, it took time for some of those present with their heads firmly into the motorcycle racing to grasp the specific imagery of the title sponsor on the graphics flashing past – hardly the place where you’d expect to see people having sex. Hands up all those who by now can't see two people having intercourse doggie style?

Once you've seen it and primed the brain’s synapses, it can be seen from miles away, and can be easily spotted within a sea of promotional graphics – it is both simple and potent. Indeed, what followed for me was that the entire MotoGP landscape suddenly appeared filled with images of copulating couples and I was overwhelmed by the boldness of the entire branding exercise (here's what we could see in high definition on a 52 inch screen - example 1, example 2, example 3).

This wasn’t an obscure late-night-TV minority sport. We were watching the broadcast on high definition free-to-air broadcast TV. The vehicle for A-style’s assault on the public psyche was MotoGP – the pinnacle of motorcycle competition has several advantages over Formula One, the biggest spectator sport in the world. It's exciting because passes occur on most corners, the crashes are far more plentiful and spectacular, and because the best ever rider is also a promotional genius and is currenty riding. F1 is nervously looking over its shoulder.

With 18 Grand Prix races on five continents each year, MotoGP is a significant global sport, broadcast to more than 200 countries with an average audience of 329 million television viewers per event – almost all of them male, monied and 18-35 years of age. It delivers a highly-influential, edgey male audience on a global scale, as cost efficient as its street marketing with a global reach of delivering its potent logo-packaged brand message. The ubiquitous nature of the public signage employed by A-style at its sponsored MotoGP events (it also sponsors the Dutch TT at Assen each year) ensures the message is seen continuously for several hours on global television and in influential magazines and newspapers around the world.

The A-style brand has evolved quite unconventionally.

In the early nineties, the provocative A was conceived, produced, and PATENTED by Italian designer Marco Bruns. It became a popular sticker and print for surf, skate and urban orientated gear – subtle until you realize what it signifies and the delicious prospect your parents might never notice is no doubt part of the defiant appeal to youth which saw it proliferate.

With no attempts to commercialize on the design other than appearing on t-shirts here and there, the A concept lay semi-dormant for a decade and a half.

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