She's barefoot, wearing her own clothes, no makeup and toting her own
elegantly weathered monogrammed Alto bag. Yet Angelina Jolie looks
radiant and completely in her element, reclining on a wooden boat in a
verdant, lakeside landscape in Cambodia's Siem Reap province. Jolie
discovered the country in 2000 when she filmed "Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider," and it sparked her humanitarian activism.
She's the latest
celebrity to pose for Louis Vuitton's popular "Core Values" campaign -
and surely the only one who brought four children to the photo shoot,
some of whom had to be shooed out of Annie Leibovitz's frame.
"People
are not used to seeing Angelina in this situation," said Pietro
Beccari, Vuitton's executive vice president, unveiling the image
exclusively to WWD. "I like the fact that it's a real moment. This
travel message we give through personal journeys is a fundamental one
for the brand."
 |
| Pietro Beccari Executive Vice President of Louis Vuitton |
The ad is slated to break in the International
Herald Tribune on Wednesday, followed by a range of news, general
interest and lifestyle publications, including Vanity Fair.
Beccari
declined to disclose budgets for the media buy, or comment on reports
Vuitton paid the American actress millions for the shoot. He would only
say Jolie donated an undisclosed portion of her fees to a charity.
The
campaign is expected to run for at least 18 months alongside a few
other recent "core values" personalities, including Bono and Sean
Connery. Vuitton introduced the advertising concept in 2007 as a way to
trumpet its travel roots and showcase its perennial monogrammed leather
goods as a balance to its fashion-driven marketing - and to reach a
broader audience. Other personalities who have posed for Vuitton
include Mikhail Gorbachev, Keith Richards and Catherine Deneuve.
Also
on Wednesday, Vuitton plans to post a teaser on its Web site,
louisvuittonjourneys.com/cambodia, foreshadowing an interview with
Jolie that will be posted later in the month. In it, she is expected to
discuss how her visit to Cambodia was a life-changing experience,
awakening her to the plight of Third World countries. She adopted her
eldest son, Maddox, from Cambodia and she and husband Brad Pitt
established the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which is active in
community development and conservation in the country.
for $3,495.00.
