'08
Nothing says you’re not over the hill like carrying a purse worth more than most people in the third world will see in a year. It also helps if you spend tens of thousands on plastic surgery, dermatologic maintenance, and personal training sessions. Dressing like a 19 year old with an unlimited budget and poor taste also may help you cling to lost years and snare that boy toy you’ve been eying to complete your look.
So good job, Louis Vuitton executives, in picking the celebrity model who embodies the consumer you’re trying to target. Your ideal customer not be able to lift her leg up over her head or smile in a way that reaches her eyes but she can wield a credit card like a sword.
We can thank creative director Marc Jacobs for picking Madonna as the latest LV spokesperson. He saw the 50 year-old in concert and recommended in a meeting the next day that she be hired. Jacobs tells Women’s Wear Daily that Madonna’s fee was “way less” than the $10 million that has been reported.
When Marc Jacobs found himself in a meeting on a recent Monday morning to brainstorm about Louis Vuitton’s next fashion advertising campaign, inspiration struck. “I just blurted out, ‘I think we should do Madonna,’” said the designer, Vuitton’s creative director, mentioning he’d attended a concert by the pop icon the night before in Paris. “I was totally just blown away by it, and moved by her performance, by what she had to say, and her energy.”
As the meeting went on, Jacobs tapped out a message to Madonna on his BlackBerry, and within about five minutes came the reply: “I’d love to.”
The result is six atmospheric pictures of a smoldering Madonna by Steven Meisel that will break in a range of fashion magazines in February. “It’s a big change from what we were doing. It tells a story,” said Antoine Arnault, Vuitton’s director of communications. “This I think is an amazing coup, but more than that, there’s real logic behind it. It’s very linked to Marc’s fashion show.”
Although Arnault declined to give figures, he said media budgets for the fashion campaign would be on par with a year ago. And he dismissed as “absurd” reports pegging Madonna’s fees at $10 million. “It’s very far away from that,” he assured…
The shoot wrapped up in less than a day and without incident, although Jacobs said hordes of paparazzi literally “appeared out of the bushes” the moment Madonna arrived. “It went from a quiet street to complete chaos,” he said.
The designer also marveled at the singer’s incredible fitness that allowed her to recline, her back arched, on bentwood chairs, or shoot a leg straight up in the air, no sweat. “She’s so sure of herself as an icon and as a woman. It was her idea to do the fishnets,” Jacobs said. “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.”
Madonna isn’t the only older star to appear in recent Louis Vuitton ads. Sean Connery, 78, will shill for the high end brand as well. At least they know who can afford the stuff.
Written by Celebitchy
Posted in Advertising, Madonna
39 Responses to “Madonna’s Louis Vuitton ads”
-
Oh yeah, kaiser, those are fab - also love the Coppolas and Catherine Deneuve ones.
I think Madge looks great in the main pic. Love all the sepia tones.
-
I hate Louis Vuitton and I don’t particularly like Madonna (at least not her current incarnation - I liked the cone bra Madonna). They have just made me want their products less.
And what you said about the purse being worth more than most people in the third world make in a year? These ridiculous purses cost more than people right here in the western world make!
-
Yuck. I thought advertising was supposed to make a product look attractive and appealing. Did they forget that? I can see it now…LV’s new catchphrase…
“Louis Vuitton: for the desperate, aging, pathetic has-been hag”
-
I’m with you geronimo, the pictures are fantastic. Love the vibe. It makes me want to go to lunch at a nice little french bistro. Also, Madonna looks gorgeous in the photos. Unfortunately she has mutilated her face in real life. When I saw her on the new Britney documentary I almost fainted. With those cheek implants she looks like Jocelyn Wildstein (sp?)
-
@Madelyn Rose - yeah, it’s a shame. I sometimes wonder what she’d look like now if she’d eased up on both the exercise and the surgery. Probably really attractive (at least on the outside!)
-
This is probably the first time in a while I’ve seen Madonna look like the Madonna image I have in my head.
All the photoshopping/airbrushing probably helped.
She didn’t even look like her on that Britney special! (Oh, the nightmares I had that night…)
-
wow! this photograher is amazing, they made skeletor look like a woman!!!!!!
-
Steve Meisel and the photo shop team did a beautiful job but I’m with @ Kaiser on this one. I loved seeing Keiths beat up mug in LV ads. Talk about an icon! Would have much preferred Marianne Faithful if the message is style that endures. If the message is old school glamour then I vote for Lassie all the way!
-
Do LV bags look better in person? Because in these photos they’re pretty ugly regardless of spokesperson.
-
I’m sure it took a lot of chisels and heavy mortar to make her look like this. She looks (dare I say it) normal and even b-b-beaut… Naw, even in her heyday she wasn’t beautiful.
Oh, and her cheeks in her REAL pics remind me of those puppets Madame and Lady Elaine Fairchild, especically Madame. Check it out…
http://www.blairmag.com/blair6/madame/ -
nice “Like a Virgin” jewelery. i guess what comes around goes around. cliche? hell yeah, but if the shoe fits…
-
For some unknown reason, until this minute I associated Louis Vuitton with class and sophistication.
And ZOMFG! That handbag is hideous! I wouldn’t buy it on sale at KMart for $12.95.
-
LV bags are SO fugging ugly! I have no idea why people pay any money for them at all. Disgusting. So it’s appropriate that they have that old hag trying to sell them.
Anytime I see a woman with an LV bag I have to keep from snickering.
-
Love the sepia and color tones. Gorgeous.
-
Oh My God! Madonna’s butt is so hairy!
-
I had to laugh when I saw the orange “furry” skirt on Madonna in these photos. Remember her recent “Oscar the Grouch” dress? It’s as if the Material Girl has been skinning Muppets left and right for clothing material.
-
She looks like Cruella DeVille in the face. No effin lie.
-
Geronimo, I was thinking that exact thing the other day. If Madonna stopped with her 6-hour patented Gristle work-outs, took out the cheek implants and put on about twenty pounds, she would look soft and lovely. Well…”lovely” might be a stretch, but she would look younger and less like a walking plastic surgery tragedy.
-
Unless it’s a pre-1950s travelling wardrobe or trunk, then LV is generally horrid. Their speciality was always high-end and bespoke travel-ware, and it’s trunks are still quite lovely.
I mean how cool is this?
http://www.geocities.com/stokowskisite/museum/trunk.jpg
Fashion designer Louis Vuitton designed this trunk with an integrated folding desk for Leopold Stokowski in 1936. It is still on sale today.Or a SHOE trunk!!
http://www.mhmvoices.org/images/big/k8b.jpgCommercial bags and shoes however… ich.
-
Blond Morticia Addams
-
@ Mairead it’s one of my favorite yard sale fantasies to come across one of these old pieces, well used, locked w/ no key of course, snatch it up for a song, take it home, open it and find a treasure trove time capsule. Now that’s my idea of pure shopping bliss.
btw I covet that desk and the shoe trunk is perfection. -
I actually think these look good and will draw alot of attention which is what a campaign is all about.
Regarding Louis Vuitton bags; I hate them. I hate anything that is emblazoned with logo’s front and back LV, Coach, Gucci, Fendi, any of them, and am amazed that people will pay for that to look “classy”. It looks like your trying too hard to have style that you don’t. That’s why Hermes bags are so cool.
-
Well I guess I’m horrible because I have an LV bag. It’s patent leather and quite dark and you really have to look to see the emblazoned LVs. I’m not a big fan of the standard LV design but this one I love and it’s gorgeous. It did cost a fortune but I was in Tokyo for work, worked a lot of overtime and my per diem covered it so I treated myself and I don’t regret it.
I also don’t hate Madonna. She’s 50. We’re all (hopefully) going to be 50 one day. I really hate all the “old hag” comments. People age, let them. She’s in better shape than me and I’m in my 30s.
-
That bag was modeled after her labia right? No? Sorry.
-
She looks beautiful.
Not sure about the shoes, I guess they match the bag in some odd way. -
She was and will always be a very pretty woman.
-
OMG if i see her weird white legs and those damn fishnets ONE MORE TIME Im going to dieee.
ugh.
Just because she’s in shape for an someone of her age doesnt mean we have to keep seeing her legs.
It honestly disgusts me.
Overall Madonna is a legend and everything, but Louis Vuitton should have chosen someone with more class.
She just tries too hard … -
Like Amonique, I’m tired of seeing those fishnets…
How can a woman who is soooooo concerned about orphans in Malawi carry LV bags which are sooooo ridiculously overpriced.
-
I wonder if Madonna will donate her fee to a charity, like others…then again, she probably wont?
-
I want that bag in the header pic. The one on the left
-
The “Sasquatch - hairy butt skirt” touch is priceless.
That’ll sell some bags!
Dumbasses, the entire fashion world.
-
Madonna’s worn fishnets since she was a dancer, it’s part of her thing- I like it. I think she looks lovely, and like that cloudy, vintage Parisian effect the photos have. It’s like Ernest Hemingway could walk in all of a sudden or something. I wouldn’t want every article here, if I could afford it, but I really, really, really like the jacket in the first picture.
-
I have to agree with jenna! She does look like Cruella DeVil…
Anyway I don’t like these pictures looks too much photoshopped.
-
The photo shoppers screwed up. Madonna’s right calf is way too skinny compared to her bulked up left calf. Isn’t this ad so at odds with what she is trying to preach to us about Malawi??? Some gumption this one has!
And the fact that she “re-invents herself” is because she has spent her adult lifetime running away from herself, it’s nothing magical, it’s fear and paranoia living out loud. -
Oh, and I second the Mister Roger’s Madame comment, looks just like her NOW.
-
I have detested Mundaina for a long time, I think LV bags are a sin, and Marc Jacobs is cute but WAY overrated, yet, I like these photos.
I like the feel of them and think the bag with hair looks quite human.
But I LOVE Ter’s comments about Vadge reinventing herself!
Well done! -
Celebitchy your comments about madonna are redicilous! you are just jeleous, she is 50 she’s got 2 kids and looks wonderful!!!!!
-
I think she looks soft and pretty. More natural than I’ve seen her look in a long time. Usually, she looks strange from too much surgery. Her body is fabulous for 50 or any age really. I know 20 year-olds who can’t lift their legs that high. She looks fabulous.
Kaiser:
geronimo:
Lauri:
Madelyn Rose:
rules:
breederina:
KateNonymous:
prissa:
Syko:
anastasiabeaverhausen:
Kristin:
cece:
Tina:
Jenna:
Mairead:
vdantev:
Ron:
Persistent Cat:
Baholicious:
Sunny:
Sickitten:
Amonique:
mif:
xiaoecho:
Cathy:
Katie:
BabySanta:
Ter:
Vern:
comment:
Di:
Leave a Reply
Celebitchy aims to be a friendly, welcoming site where people can discuss entertainment stories and current events in a lighthearted, safe environment without fear of harassment, excessive negativity, or bullying. Different opinions, backgrounds, ages, and nationalities are welcome here - hatred and bigotry are not.By commenting you agree to our comment policy
Use the "Report this comment as spam or abuse" link to ask the moderators to delete a comment if it's offensive. If your comment disappears, it has been eaten by the spam filter. Please e-mail cbcomments at gmail.com to get it retrieved.
Get an icon next to your name by signing up for a free Gravatar
Oh, good Lord. Is Marc Jacobs back on the pipe?
I really like the anti-glamour LV ads with true icons, like Gorbechev and Keith Richards.
Report this comment as spam or abuse