Burberry’s Latest Sixties-Influenced Ad Features Dusty Springfield Soundtrack
Burberry, under designer Christopher Bailey’s creative direction, operates much like a well-curated record label these days. In recent years, the British heritage brand has fostered as many young musicians’ careers as models’, and in the case of Burberry ad campaigns, the two often overlap. Former spokemodels range from pop eclecticist Patrick Wolf to retro rock upstarts Ramona, both English acts who sound nothing alike but can mutually thank Burberry for raising their profiles enormously.
Bailey’s all-star casts for the label rotate every season, but are bound by a common group of aesthetics that define what it means to be young and British in 2011; a quick survey of the latest ads confirms that the Burberry youth are still offbeat but winsome, modern but a little nostalgic. Set to a loose theme of post-Beatles poeticism, the Fall 2011 campaign encompasses print ads, video, and a soundtrack cornerstoned by some of the more serene moments in British pop history. The seasonal theme, the designer has noted, is based on David Bailey’s Sixties era portraiture of iconic model Jean Shrimpton, who was an avid Burberry supporter. Burberry has strategically released a new video vignette and print ad at the start of each summer month; each features a brand new crop of soon-to-be-familiar faces.
The third and latest ad, starring newcomers Amber Anderson and Jake Cooper and shot by Mario Testino, premiered yesterday and features the late, great Dusty Springfield’s “24 Hours in Tulsa,” a variation on the cameos introduced earlier in the series, which included Springfield’s cover of Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me,” as well as Roger Daltrey’s “You and Me.”
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