Payless Still Hasn’t Paid the Agency Behind Its Viral ‘Palessi’ Stunt [Video]

It was a massive success for the Payless chain that led to millions of impressions—nearly all of them earned. It provided the best media hit for Payless since the struggling company emerged as a “rare bankruptcy survivor” several months earlier. It was also Adweek’s most popular story of 2018.

Today, however, the agency behind the year’s top viral stunt has yet to receive the money owed for its work.

Last fall, Payless took over a former Armani store in Santa Monica, Calif., inviting a slew of fashion influencers to the opening of “Palessi,” a new kind of luxury footwear retailer where sleek Oxfords, pumps and “shooties” sold for as much as $400. The catch, as we now know, is that none of it was real. These were basic Payless products with prices closer to $20 or $40.

“We wanted to revitalize this iconic shoe retailer,” said Doug Cameron, chief creative officer at DCX Growth Accelerator, in a follow-up Q&A.“So we decided to …

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