Diesel, the jeans maker, has launched a new campaign. I noticed it in Paris, and photographed its billboards, along an entire platform of the métro. (As you can tell from the photos, the wall of the métro platform is curved.)

Diesel’s campaign has a tagline: Be stupid.

In France, the slogans are written in English, translated into French word-for-word in small print.

In French, I’m confident that the slogan doesn’t work; French people don’t want to be stupid. And as an American, I can’t think of a positive connotation to “stupid”.

From Diesel promotional materials, being “stupid” has something to do with living intensely and without care. It has nothing to do with being unintelligent or slow or dim-witted.

Musical group The Black Eyed Peas sang “let’s get stupid” on their hit “Let’s Get Retarded” from the album Elephunk; the song was subsequently re-released with the title “Let’s Get It Started“. I understood “stupid” in this case to suggest being inebriated or high, but maybe I’m reading too much into the lyrics. Perhaps this song matches the meaning sought by Diesel.

Maybe Diesel wants to appropriate “stupid” by using it ironically, much like people of color (among themselves) use the word “Negro”, or homosexuals use “gay” or “queer”.