Oh, you gotta check out this fashion film/commercial that Cartier, the French fine jewellery brand, came up with to celebrate its 165-year history! It’s bit of a cinematic/advertising magnum opus, methinks 😀
Titled L’Odyssée de Cartier, the three-and-a-half minute film follows the iconic symbol of the maison, the panther, on a voyage across the globe where it chances upon key moments and locations from the maison’s implausibly rich past.
The film starts at the Cartier flagship Rue de la Paix store, where a bejewelled panther statuette explodes to life. It travels to a snowy St Petersburg, brushing past a Russian tsarina flashing a Cartier diamond ring. It then comes face-to-face with a golden dragon, which flies away and turns into the Great Wall (of China). Next, it finds itself in a palace bursting with Cartier-crafted glittering flora and fauna. We learn that it’s actually the Taj Mahal (of India), but is located atop an elephant’s back. It jumps from the elephant’s back to land on the wings of an identical replica of the airplane built by Alberto Santos-Dumont, the pilot of which flashes the classic Cartier Santos watch (first commissioned by the Brazilian aviation legend in 1904).
The plane whisks the panther to Paris, the birthplace of Cartier, on Place Vendôme. At the Grand Palais, it meets supermodel Shalom Harlow, sporting, of course, some more Cartier jewellery. The special effects are so dazzling that you don’t actually realize that you’re being subjected to some serious product placement, which is why, I feel, this spot works so well.
Publicis Groupe agencies Marcel and Publicis 133 (a luxury brand specialist) are the clever clogs behind it. Top-notch advertising director Bruno Aveillan helmed the film, which combined real and animated scenes, with live footage of a panther, played by three animals trained by Thierry Le Portier. Filming ran from June to September 2011 and took place in Prague, Paris, the Italian Dolomites and Spain. An original score was composed by Pierre Adenot, and the red dress worn by Shalom was custom-made by a young Chinese fashion designer named Yiqing Yinwith. The film is currently being aired on the US, UK, Canadian, French, Chinese and seven other countries’ TV.
SO, what do you think: a brilliant spot of advertising, which, perhaps, might extend Cartier’s customer base; or, was the maison simply showing off the spare cash it has?