Creative impulse

Last week we witnessed Fuller's London Pride encouraging men to behave nobly. Burton, on the other hand, thinks it best to appeal to their more roguish side. A new pounds 1.5m print campaign by Mellors Reay and Partners juxtaposes testosterone-drenched imagery with the strapline: "Burton. Gentlemen's outfitters." The executions, shot by David Bailey, depict three men taking a communal pee, a man exposing his upper back to reveal a tattoo, a scissor-wielding woman shredding a man's tie, and a woman dressed only in a shirt and tie being clasped to a naked man.

The client: the Burton Group

Amanda Bassett, spokesperson

Burton has changed a lot over the past 18 months or so: the shops have become far more up to date and better suited to the lifestyles of our customers. We wanted to get average blokes - people who wouldn't normally think of going into Burton's - to give us a second look. A TV campaign last year showed where Burton has got to, but we wanted to reinforce that this year in print.

The agency: Mellors Reay and Partners

Justin Kent, planning partner

Burton is a brand that no one's really defined before. If you ask someone what they associate with, say, Marks & Spencer, they will say "quality", but Burton's image is a bit vague. We wanted to make Burton mean "good- looking clothes for blokes".

The ads play on taking the long tailoring heritage that people remember the brand by, and placing it against a blokeish visual. What we are saying is that gentlemen today are blokes, and the image is now very casual, easy and informal. There's a lot of starch about the brand, if you like, so we're making it more clearly understood. We hired David Bailey to give the campaign an edge - an on-the-street feel.

These ads aren't aimed at the high-fashion end of the market. Burton is for people who aspire to be stylish, but not necessarily fashionable. Besides, we still have to appeal to a broad age-range - from 25 to over 45. In short, we're targeting people who enjoy life - who like sport, who like drinking, and who like to look good - but would never say they were followers of fashion. It's a simple, no-nonsense campaign: nothing complicated, and nothing pretentious.

It's also meant to be rather tongue-in-cheek. Blokes have always been blokes: it's not men who've changed in the last few years, but the observations made about them. New Men have never really existed, for once men started trying to become what women wanted them to be, they stopped being sexy. We're just mirroring a natural movement - men's return to what they are most comfortable being

Scott Hughes