Ad of the Day: Cartier

The French jeweler is out with a fantastical new long-form ad that reimagines the brand's 165-year history as a diamond jungle cat's adventures through space and time. Created by Marcel Agency and directed by A-list commercial director Bruno Aveillan, the three-and-a-half minute spot is gorgeously shot—an absurd little treasure that, like most fashion spots, is long on style and short on substance. It opens on the brand's flagship Rue de la Paix storefront, where a bejeweled feline statuette comes to life before embarking on a journey to the ends of the Earth. The trip takes her past a snowy Russian tsarina flashing a Cartier diamond, across the Great Wall—which we learn is actually the back of mystical serpent—and through the Taj Mahal, bursting with other Cartier-crafted flora and fauna and located atop an oversized mammal.

Ultimately, a Cartier-watch-wearing pilot whisks our heroine away on the nose of a Wright-era flying machine, carrying her back to present-day Paris, where she is apparently reunited with a character the brand calls "The Lady in the Mansion," played by model Shalom Harlow, who clues us in to the fact that the panther sheds diamonds, too.

Dazzling as it all is, we're glad Cartier told us that the spot recounted its global pedigree, and the panther—which looks an awful lot like a leopard—is a panther, and symbolized its jewelry expertise. Otherwise, we might have wondered what, apart from sparkly feelings, they were trying to convey. The brand premiered the ad at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and broadcast the entire cut on NBC, ABC, and CBS in prime time this past Sunday night. We guess that's a nice gift to the masses … particularly appropriate, given that, for the majority of the audience, buying any of the brand's pricey regalia is the stuff of fairy tales.

CREDITS

Client: Cartier

Agency: Marcel Agency

Director: Bruno Aveillan