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The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2023

A charity priced a worn sweater at 9,999,999 tenge to make clothes scarcity felt

Kazakhstan's Teplo fund listed one secondhand sweater as a luxury drop nobody could afford.

Teplo Foundation

the move

In Kazakhstan, thousands of people cannot afford clothes, and charity collection points were being ignored. Teplo Foundation's task was to make the unavailability of clothing something people actually felt rather than a statistic.

Agency SEED created 'The Unavailable Drop': an ordinary worn sweater from the donation pile, styled and sold like a limited streetwear drop at the unaffordable price of 9,999,999 tenge. Advertising for the sweater led outraged consumers to Teplo's website, where the price was revealed as a metaphor for clothes being unavailable to the needy.

The campaign ran for three months. Donated clothing more than doubled and brand awareness rose, and the fund clothed more than 15,000 people in need. The work was shortlisted at Spikes Asia 2024 for three PR awards and later won a Silver Clio plus multiple Ad Black Sea and Red Jolbors prizes.

why it works

  • Outrage at the price pulls people into the message far better than pity.
  • The streetwear 'drop' framing speaks the language of audiences that ignore charity ads.
  • The twist makes the metaphor unforgettable.
  • The price is deliberately impossible, so nobody buys it and the point survives.
the payoffPrice the problem, not the productclever

what transfers

When an appeal is ignored, make the audience feel the problem in its own language: an absurd price turns indifference into outrage, and the twist converts that outrage into giving.

what came after

The campaign more than doubled donated clothing, clothed over 15,000 people, earned a Silver Clio, a MAD STARS shortlist and a string of Ad Black Sea and Red Jolbors awards, and gave the fund a repeatable way to dramatize scarcity.

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