You know how most couples save for years to afford a dream wedding?
Yeah, Dagobert Renouf didn’t do that.
The French tech entrepreneur didn’t just think outside the box, he freaking sold the box.
When he couldn’t afford to marry his fiancée, Anna Plynina, he turned his wedding suit into literal ad space, 26 startup logos stitched right onto his tuxedo.
A few months ago, Renouf was broke, “close to homelessness.”
Still, he wanted to give Anna the wedding she deserved. One day, he posted on X (Twitter) joking that he’d sell ad spots on his wedding jacket to pay for the ceremony.
A follower replied,
“I’ll give you €500 if I can put my logo on your suit.”
It spiraled from there. Within days, Renouf’s DMs turned into Shark Tank, and 26 startups from AI to SaaS bought slots for anywhere between $300 and $2,000 each.
By the time he said “I do” on October 25, he was wearing a $10,000 sponsored tuxedo, complete with stitched brand patches and a smile that said “#ad.” His wife wasn’t thrilled at first (“I had to negotiate Prada shoes as part of the deal,” he joked), but eventually leaned in, calling it “a way to celebrate our community.”
Ironically, Renouf barely broke even, I mean…the custom suit cost $5,200, taxes took $2,500, and a videographer chewed up the rest. Still, it worked.
The story went viral, startups applauded his “creative marketing,” and one company, Comp AI, even offered him a job because of it.
“My guests loved it,” Renouf said.
“Even my mother-in-law thought it was genius. I was just worried every logo was visible in the photos.”
I think this is genius. It’s bold, but this stunt also made things clear for everyone: the wife, the husband, and even the relatives.
Renouf is broke, but crazy, and his wife will actually stay with him even in poverty, unlike most in this day and age.
The 26 companies that sponsored…I would like to clap for them, too.
When you’ve got no money but too much creativity, you start auctioning yourself to survive, and somehow, this man makes it look cool instead of insulting or making it awkward.
Renouf turned financial rock bottom into a startup pitch deck. This is love powered by capitalism, and I love it.
THE WHY: DESPERATION
Weirdness Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
4.5/5 because this is either the saddest ad campaign ever… or the smartest. Either way, the guy literally got sponsored to get married, and somehow, it worked.
“Look, most of us want a normal life without any drama, but life in this world is always strange, and uncertain.
I don’t need your email. I don’t want to bug you with a billion notifications. All I ask is this, if you felt something here, if this made you think, laugh, or even shake your head in disbelief, turn on notifications or just bookmark ‘Averagebeing.com’ and come back tomorrow.
That’s it. No strings. Just you, me, and this stupid world.”
