‘Sophisticated & high-quality!’ Fashion ‘influencers’ pranked into paying $600 for $20 shoes

It’s all about presentation, a Kansas-based discount footwear chain has proved, by tricking a crowd of self-styled fashion experts into purchasing one-of-a-kind, exclusive shoes designed by a non-existent luxury brand Palessi.

The gullible trend-setters had no idea that they were being tricked into buying $20 or $40 Payless shoes for as much as $600. The fictitious fashion label that no one has heard of, but apparently did not dare to question while surrounded by a crowd of fellow fashion experts, was not only able to bank $3,000 in the first hours of operation, but also leave their customers excited about the exclusive purchases they’d made.

“They are elegant, sophisticated,” one of the customers said at the launch presentation, which took place at a former Armani store that was renamed Palessi for the event.

“I could tell that they are made out of the high-quality material,” noted another fashionista.

When told by event organizers about the social marketing experiment, those lucky customers who managed to grab an ‘exclusive’ pair were stunned to find out the entire Palessi line is available at Payless for about twenty bucks.

“Shut up! Are you serious?” said a woman that was about to cough up $500 for her shoes. Of course, the customers were offered a full refund for their purchase, yet Payless got priceless footage for their holiday marketing campaign.

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