Astronauts are the stars in Louis Vuitton ad

Louis Vuitton reaches for the heavens in a new print ad starring astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride and Jim Lovell. The three appear in this photo, shot by Annie Leibovitz, sitting on the hood of a old truck, gazing up at the moon, on which Aldrin walked 40 years ago this July 20. There will also be a companion video in which the three reminisce about their space travels. (Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, apparently declined to be involved.) The campaign, by Ogilvy & Mather, marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing and is supposed to be a respectful homage to the astronauts, though the product it's endorsing, the $1,530 Icare travel bag, is named for the Greek hero who flew too close to the sun. Huh. Anyway, this continues LV's strategy of using older spokespeople, like Mikhail Gorbachev and Keith Richards, to entice baby boomers who need fancy handbags to distract from how old they've become themselves. So, they should stop calling Armstrong and get Tony Curtis on the phone.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Fashion, Kiefaber, Louis Vuitton
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Kanye West enlists girlfriend as spokesbutt

Hey look, another butt. (I'm totally on a roll.) This time, it's Kanye West and his naked weirdo girlfriend in a new ad for ... something. I'm not sure what they're pitching, here. BlackBook says it's an ad for West's personal line of Louis Vuitton shoes—he designed them himself, you know—but he doesn't seem very enthusiastic about them. Looking at them, neither am I. No wonder he threw Amber Rose out there as a distraction.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Butts, Celebrity endorsements, Fashion, Footwear, Kanye West, Kiefaber, Louis Vuitton
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Vuitton adds Madonna to list of old friends

Following in the aging footsteps of Mikhail Gorbachev and Keith Richards, Madonna has now joined the Louis Vuitton campaign, sitting for a half-dozen French-bistro photos that will appear in fashion magazines in February. Women's Wear Daily gets the rest of the scoop from Marc Jacobs, who marvels at the kind of strength and flexibility that allows the Material Girl to strike poses like this one. "It was her idea to do the fishnets," Jacobs says. "What fascinates me the most about her is her never-ending energy, and the idea of becoming and changing. She's an artist who's unafraid to use her voice."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Fashion, Louis Vuitton, Nudd
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Louis Vuitton wages war on peace activist

You could have gone your whole life without ever hearing of Nadia Plesner and her effort to raise awareness of genocide in Darfur. Then, for reasons that boggle the mind, Louis Vuitton decides to wage a legal battle with the artist over her use of the image shown here. Plesner created the “Simple Living” T-shirt and poster campaign to contrast the suffering in Sudan with the opulence of U.S. celebrity. But Vuitton believes she’s infringing on its intellectual property rights by showing that handbag, which it says is similar to this tacky number (though what they claim looks like the LV logo looks more like the mark of a certain Midwestern baseball team). I’ll be honest: When it comes to her legal defense, it’s a bit of a sticky wicket. One could argue she’s not creating a parody of Louis Vuitton but is instead using its work in a satire of pop culture. In the U.S., courts have been tougher on satire than parody. But the real question is, Why would Louis Vuitton pick this fight in the first place? It’s hard to think of a worse idea for one’s corporate image than to sue an artist who’s trying to help victims of genocide. Via Osocio.

—Posted by David Griner

Filed under Fashion, Griner, Louis Vuitton
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Keith Richards joins Louis Vuitton campaign

Keith Richards has been photographed by Annie Leibowitz for the latest Louis Vuitton ad, and his involvement in the campaign makes sense—if you’re selling leather bags, why not hire one, too? See the full photograph here. The copy (not visible in the photo, for some reason) reportedly reads: “Some journeys cannot be put into words. New York. 3 a.m. Blues in C.” Antoine Arnault, head of communications for Louis Vuitton, tells the Daily Mail: “This is the first time ever that Keith Richards has participated in an advertising campaign of any sort, and it is hard to imagine a more compelling embodiment of a personal, emotional journey.” A possible alternate copy line: “Never forget the journeys you can’t remember.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Fashion, Louis Vuitton, Nudd
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Creepy secret message in Gorbachev ad?

New York magazine’s Daily Intelligencer today took a closer look at this Louis Vuitton ad with Mikhail Gorbachev (running on the back cover of this week’s issue) and promptly soiled itself. Apparently, the reading material sticking out of Gorbachev’s fancy bag says something like, “Litvinenko’s Murder: They Wanted to Give Up a Suspect for $7,000.” (Another site translates it as, “Murder of Litvinenko. Treason for $7000?”) Alexander Litvinenko was the ex-Russian spy who died of radiation poisoning last year, possibly at the hands of the Russian government. No one seems to know what the cryptic message means. Gorbachev was asked about it on a Danish talk show last week, but refused to shed any light. Whatever the explanation, it’s certainly the biggest Louis Vuitton ad mystery since people looked at this photo and wondered, “Why on earth does she have a shoe on her head?”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Fashion, Louis Vuitton
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