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Vuitton….Louis Vuitton. Everyone’s favorite James Bond, Sean Connery, can now be added to the list of recent celebrities recruited to star in a Annie Leibowitz shot campaign for fashion designer Louis Vuitton. Promoting their ‘Core Values’ effort, Sean Connery joins other celebrities like Keith Richards, Sofia and Francis Ford Coppola, Andre Agassi and Mikhail Gorbachev. The campaign benefits The Climate Project, which is run by Al Gore. In order to get Gorbachev to model for the campaign, a donation was made to Green Cross International, an environmental organization founded by the former Soviet leader in 1993.

The tag-line reads,

There are journeys that turn into legends

The 78 year old retired actor is pictured relaxing on a dock near his home in the Bahamas. Two other pieces in the campaign are shown below.

Francis Ford Coppola and Sofia Coppola:

Keith Richards:

Gorbachev:

Here’s the latest installment in the Mini campaign done by SanFran based Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners. This time there is no decoder kit required to view the message, instead we are given a “Mini Parking Amulet.” Made for non-mini owners, this amulet is supposed to aid owners of big cars with finding parking spaces as “It’s not easy squeezing a mastadon into a marmot hole.” Combined with the usual witty copy, this punch-out amulet was a pretty novel idea. First they went after mini-owners, now it seems they are going after the “other” crowd. The best part is the text on the back:

Still circling? In the very, very , very remote chance your amulet is defective, remain calm. Cursing the amulet will only summon forth additional fire hydrants and loading zones from parking purgatory. Take a deep breath, visit miniusa.com, and restore your faith in parking magic.

Needless to say, I’m a fan of this project.

—[UPDATE]—

Ian Cooper from www.gpmini.net just sent me the billboard accompaniment found “on Route 1 in Saugus just north of Boston, Massachusetts.” Thanks Ian.

These ads have been all over the ‘net recently. Great looking campaign done by Nike to promote their sponsored Italian football players. I love it when advertising starts to look like art. Done by W+K, Amsterdam (CDs: Mark Hunter & Alvaro Sotomayor).

Here’s a rought translation (thanks to I believe in adv):

This is the latest installment of the MINI Cooper “Secret Decoder” ads that have been placed in magazines around the country. This campaign was created by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners for MINI USA and can be found in this month’s issue of Car & Driver. Using your “secret decoder kit” that was mailed out to MINI owners, the secret message appears guiding you to another spoof/novelty site. Seeing how I don’t have a decoder kit myself, I’ll just give away the secret: http://www.minispygear.com.


The website is a pretty neat looking spoof of the old novelty ads found on the back of comic books. After navigating through the site, you’re led to a screen asking for your VIN(I used one that I found on AutoTrader.com) and then promised some MINI shwag if you enter in your contact info.
Neat series, I look forward to seeing the rest.
View all the photos here.

(A big thanks goes out to Ian Cull from www.gbmini.net for the images)

I found this insert in a magazine the other day and was pleasantly amused. It’s the Jetta Official Backseat Driver’s Manual. The guide then goes on to inform us that “Being a backseat driver is not a right. It’s a privilege. And a responsibility.” It not only resembles an official looking manual, but also includes a quiz and an official backseat drivers license at the end(complete with a spot to affix your own photo).

Done by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, I would have liked to have seen some more content related to this(where’s the website!?). Click HERE to view scans of each of the pages. Very clever, I am looking forward to seeing the other books in the “Designed For Funf” series (this one claims to be “book one”).

If this is looking familiar, you may recall that they did a magazine insert for the mini that let you use the page as a stencil to draw your own “modified” ride.

I wonder what the responsibilities of a passenger riding Hump will be?