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Monday, 28 April

Torture chic from Amnesty, and Tom Ford

Marketing

Amnesty International have just released a devastating film showing the horrors of waterboarding. The fact that it is shot as a spoof of a luxury water commercial only adds to the power of the message.

Not the latest advert for a luxury brand of bottled water, but a disturbing new film depicting the process of waterboarding, the controversial interrogation method used by US security services. — (Via The Telegraph, UK)

Watch the Amnesty International spot.

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Ironically the TV spot comes weeks after the controversial new Tom Ford campaign which shows a similar image, but using champagne. The Tom Ford campaign has run into problems in some of the countries in which it has been shown, and this image has been banned in Italy.

Tom Ford has always been inspired by cultural zeitgeists, but whether or not his champagne waterboarding was intentional, is more difficult to say.

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Thursday, 3 April

Four Seasons magazine relaunches

Marketing

four0408.jpgTwo weeks ago we wrote about the boom in luxury magazine titles, and the trend continues as the publisher of the Four Seasons Hotel magazine, Pace Communications, announces a relaunch of the Four Seasons publication.

The new look magazine clearly seeks to use the magazine as a stronger piece of communication for the Four Seasons brand, and has a stated ambition to widen its circulation. It also strengthens the magazine as a viable venue for luxury brand advertising.

Four Seasons’ brief to Pace was to make the magazine more contemporary, more global and to take it to the next level. They felt that there had been an increasing disconnect between the Four Seasons brand and the magazine, and what we came up with went with where they are as a brand and where they’re going. The redesign was not in response to a rebranding by them, it was more to bring the magazine to reflect what the brand was. — (Via DMN News)

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Monday, 10 March

James Bond for Tom Ford

Marketing

tomf0308.jpgHis name is Bond, James Bond, and news leaked out over the weekend that for the upcoming 007 movie, he is going to be wearing Ford, Tom Ford.

For years, Bond wore Brioni. More recently, there were rumors that the suits might switch to Dunhill - or to a bespoke tailor on Saville Row, but now Tom Ford is thought to be the new strongest contender.

James Bond movies carry some of the strongest product placement equity in the world. For Tom Ford, it represents a strong collaboration for a brand which is based on a strategy of instant heritage, masculinity and classic tailoring.

Ian Fleming was fond of listing items and brands as a lazy way of establishing scenes and characters (with the Walther PPK and the Martini being only the most famous examples) but matters do seem to have soared to another level. Pierce Brosnan’s final outing, Die Another Day (2002), is widely regarded as the most product placement-heavy film ever made, with 25 promotional partners, right down to Bond drinking Bollinger and using a Phillips razor. According to Variety, £31.3 million was raised in one deal alone, when Aston Martin replaced BMW as the film’s official vehicle supplier. — (Via The Times, UK)

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Monday, 18 February

The reconquest of luxury

Marketing

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For 15 years, Adbusters magazine has preached a manifesto of anti-corporate, anti-brand attitudes. It has questioned the power of corporations, the wisdom of mass marketing, and the co-opting of alternative culture.

However, this month, the magazine has evolved its attitude. It has launched a positive message of hope for the future of cool.

Now the fog is lifting. We’re finally beginning to understand where this bogus cool has been leading us: not to happiness and prosperity as promised in the ads, but to cynicism, ecocide and a brutal, dog-eat-dog future.

This is the magic moment in which capitalist cool can stumble and authentic cool can start bubbling back up again. And after decades of wandering around the wilderness, we on the Left are finally realizing what that magic moment is all about. — (Via Adbusters)

Luxury, like cool, is a slippery concept which has been much abused over recent years. And reading the Adbusters article and swapping out ‘cool’ for ‘luxury’ gives us a useful analogy for the state of the luxury market.

Change is overdue; and luxury is in the midst of evolving into a new configuration.

This morning, reporting on the new Gucci campaign, The Guardian references the new tone… “Uproar as model smiles in fashion ad” — (Via The Guardian)

It may be just a smile in a Gucci ad. But it’s also a symptom of a new strategic attitude. As Adbusters mentions, related to alternative culture, so too the world of luxury is “realizing what that magic moment is all about”

“Luxury is not going out of style. It needs to change its style.” — Tom Ford, October 2007

Welcome to the future of luxury.

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