The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2022–2023
Ace & Tate's Bring on the Sun showed no sunglasses — its second-best sales weekend
To launch its summer shades, Ace & Tate showed people squinting in the sun and no product; the first weekend became the brand's second-best sales moment.
Ace & Tate · Base Design
What it had to solve
Ace & Tate was launching its summer 2022 sunglasses collection. Eyewear advertising usually parades frames and styling, but the brand wanted a subtler, more universal approach that moved beyond fashion-led, youth-focused marketing.
How it works
In 2022 Ace & Tate launched its summer sunglasses collection. Instead of a conventional eyewear campaign full of frames and faces, it built the launch around a universal feeling: being dazzled by the sun. People were photographed squinting in bright light, visibly in need of sunglasses — and no sunglasses appeared in the work at all.
Created with design agency Base Design, the campaign played the need rather than the product. Portraits and film spots showed people caught in harsh sunlight, screwing up their eyes and reaching for shade, under the line 'Bring on the sun'. The subtlety was the point: the brand trusted viewers to feel the discomfort the glasses answer.
The approach worked. The first weekend after the launch was the second-best sales day in Ace & Tate's history, and the campaign was recognised at the D&AD Awards and filed in the archive as a press and outdoor campaign.
Why it lands
- Showing no sunglasses makes the campaign stand out in a category where every rival displays frames and styling.
- Squinting in bright light is a feeling everyone knows, so the idea speaks beyond fashion-conscious youth to any age.
- Omitting the product forces the viewer to supply the need, turning each image into the argument for buying shades.
- A real launch weekend gave the idea a measurable sales result instead of applause.
What it did
The first weekend after the launch was the second-best sales day in Ace & Tate's history, and the work was recognised at the D&AD Awards and filed in its archive as a press and outdoor campaign.
What you can take
Do not sell the product; sell the moment it answers. A viewer who has felt the sun in their eyes already understands why they need the shades, so the ad can leave them out entirely.
Since then
The campaign ran around the spring 2022 launch of the summer collection and carried Ace & Tate through the season as a deliberate counter to fashion-led eyewear marketing. It was filed in the D&AD awards archive, where the work page notes that the first weekend after launch was the second-best sales day in the brand's history.
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