From: Hollister
Subject Line: Take a Trip with Hollister - Downtown to Surftown
Date: Thursday, July 20 2006

Regardless of my feelings about Hollister and parent brand Abercrombie & Fitch - namely that they use sex inappropropriately to market to children - I have to applaud their brilliant branding efforts. I do not frequent their website much less their stores, but even through my limited contact with the brand - via email - I have developed a very strong sense of the Hollister "imaginaire." Hollister is not just a clothing retailer. It's a place, a texture, a way of life, a state of mind - an imaginary west coast refuge of laid-back beauty. It's in the words, the font faces, the imagery. It's an incredibly well-constructed illusion that promises teen paradise is as close as slipping on a "Mountain Road Beach Henley".

As the subject line reads: "Take a Trip with Hollister - Downtown to Surftown". Click here to see a technically impressive execution of this seductive imaginary world.