While so many people within the marketing community scratch their heads about how “useful” Second Life is, it appears that the fashion/retail brands are the one’s with the most opportunity.  Like American Apparel’s leap into the virtual space, Lacoste has taken note of the young, fashionable, and artistic crowd within Second Life and jumped on the opportunity.

Their effort, part CGM and part America’s Top model, has real people submit a series of photos of their virtual self, and let’s the community decide who’s the “top model”.  Winners become official models for Lacoste, and one would assume offered free virtual product. 

Pretty simple, effective way to create loyalists, foster community and get some buzz among influencers.  I’d say it’s one of the better programs I’ve seen and executed much more cleanly (within the brand) than the lame virtual Big Brother … more about here.

Like American Idol, or scores of YouTube videos, the “headshot” photos (taken within Second Life, and using their photo capture application) along with the avatar styles run a broad spectrum.  Some are downright cheezey (using that as a technical term of course) while others are really artful using lighting effects, backgrounds, merged artwork and digital retouching.

 Check out the fashionable entry from the current vote leader Haver Cole.