With the latest wave of its Core Values advertising campaign, Louis
Vuitton commemorates the 40th anniversary of man’s conquest
of the Moon, elevating the theme of travel as a personal journey to a
celebration of a voyage of unsurpassed significance for all mankind.
Louis Vuitton is proud to have brought together three exceptional
figures whose own remarkable personal journeys have taken them into
space: Buzz Aldrin, who in the course of the historic Apollo 11 mission
with Neil Armstrong on 20th and 21st July 1969,
became the second man to set foot upon the Moon; Jim Lovell, the
commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970, who - as the world
watched with bated breath - heroically guided his crew back to the
safety of Earth; and Sally Ride, who in 1983 became the first American
woman to venture into space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger.
The new visual, photographed once more by Annie Leibovitz, was shot on
the high plateaux of the Californian desert, from where, on a clear
night, the Moon takes on an almost supernatural intensity. The three
astronauts are portrayed quietly surveying the sky from the battered
pickup truck in which they have undertaken this journey together, each
no doubt reliving an extraordinary memory. Beside them on the truck is
Louis Vuitton’s Icare travel bag in Monogram canvas, an allusion to the
mythological hero who also dreamed of flight. The tag line, in an echo
of Neil Armstrong’s famous words in 1969, states: "Some journeys change
mankind forever."
Antoine Arnault, Head of Communications at Louis Vuitton, says: "With
this latest impressive execution of the award-winning Core Values
campaign, Louis Vuitton and its advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather have
proved their ability to push the boundaries once again. Space represents
the final frontier, and the Moon is the destination beyond which no man
has yet travelled."
Simultaneously, in its first integrated press and digital advertising
campaign, Louis Vuitton is launching a dedicated website -
louisvuittonjourneys.com – on which Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell and Sally
Ride discuss how the experience of space changed their lives, offering a
fascinating insight into Annie Leibovitz's print visual. The site
attains a degree of interactivity that is unprecedented for Louis
Vuitton, enabling internet users to view the interviews as if they were
actually present by, for example, playing them in any order they want,
zooming in on an individual astronaut, or viewing the reactions of one
astronaut to what another is saying. The interviews, which were filmed
with three separate movie cameras to create a strange, gravity-defying
ambiance, as if the astronauts were indeed in space, can also be
downloaded to a computer, MP3 or mobile phone. Also featured on
louisvuittonjourneys.com is a making-of video of the interviews, as well
as a focus on The Climate Project, spearheaded by Nobel Peace Prize
winner Al Gore, to which Louis Vuitton is making a donation on behalf of
the three astronauts.
The new Core Values visual will appear in the July 2009 issues of
international titles, while louisvuittonjourneys.com will be launched by
a video teaser on 3rd June and will go on-line for a press
preview on 10th June (louisvuittonjourneyspress.com) ahead of
its worldwide launch on 2nd July. It can also be accessed via
the Louis Vuitton corporate website louisvuitton.com.
Louis Vuitton
Lesley Thompson, 646-845-4610
