Looking For Morph Girl
Anarchy retires character, continues the eyewear campaign.
By John Stouffer and Robyn Hakes
(7-29-98)

Anarchy's Marketing Director Jorge Verdin, along with Marketing Specialist Daniela Bauled, recently dropped by the SNOWboarding Business offices and told us what really happened to the Morph Girl—that disturbing little futuristic figure that appeared in many of the company's early print advertisements.

SNOWboarding Business: One industry member says that the Morph Girl in your Anarchy ads was the most disturbing thing he's ever seen. And yet he thought the ads were awesome because everyone talked about them. Will we ever see the Morph Girl again?

Jorge Verdin: No. But he's right. We were out for two years before we ran that campaign, and we had to do something to take us to that next level.

I'm a big KISS fan and Gene Simmons had a quote once: "I don't care if you love us or hate us, but always print a picture." So we got a reaction and got people talking about us. Then once the Morph Girl was gone, people took us a little more seriously and we had a little more credibility, but they always remembered us for that reason. So it worked.

Who was she?

Some girl from New York City, who worked as a waitress and was 22 years old. Everyone thought she was like twelve. We just used [the computer program] Photoshop to make her look that way.

The sunglass market is pretty competitive. When and why did Anarchy get involved?

Our parent company, Sungold, has been around for 45 years. They've been making Stussy Eyegear for the last fifteen. We started Anarchy four years ago, and three years ago we started Angel.

The reason we did it was purely value driven. There was a huge gap in the market. You had ten- to fifteen-dollar sunglasses on the rack, then you had 65- to 120-dollar sunglasses. There was nothing in the middle. Nothing. There was such a huge void.

We did Anarchy at 40- to 60-dollars retail, with the same polycarbonate lenses and plastic frames like everyone else's. Once you're branded and you advertise, you make it a brand. It's value that translates to the customers, no matter if it's shoes, sunglasses, or widgets.

Who are your major competitors in that price range?

There's no competitor in our price range. There are other companies that have one or two pieces that fall into the price range. Black Flys has the Micro Fly, Arnette has the Swinger at 55 dollars I think, and others have something in there, but most are above.

It's no secret that their best-selling pieces have the lowest retail prices as well. The Skinny is DSO's lowest retail price and it's their best-selling glass. We've seen people bring their prices down to our prices.

Are they taking away sales from you?

It's legitimizing that price point. They were there before us at some prices and we came in and took some market share away from them at that price point. But they're still doing fine at the other prices.

What are we going to see for your upcoming ad campaign? Will there be a return of the Morph Girl?

No. It's just a development of the team. As we get more and more popular and grow up in stature, so will our athletes. We didn't have Michele Taggart three years ago, now we do. And we have Jimmy Halapoff, Gabe Linn, and J2. We have a lot of people under our umbrella, and that's great.

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