Click to Enlarge. David Beckham for Armani 2009, Photo by Armani
If you thought Dolce and Gabbana’s World Cup advertisements were hot pieces of Azzurri man candy in 2006 and 2010 and that David Beckham’s 2009 Armani adverts were swoon-worthy, chicas, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Click to Enlarge. 2006 Italia MNT, Photo by Dolce & Gabbana
Real Madrid and Portugal’s best investment, Cristiano Ronaldo, the winger/forward is the currently one of the highest paid footballers in the world and the face of Emporio Armani’s Fall/Winter 2010-2011 men’s jeans and underwear advertising campaign.
The advertisements were shot on location in Madrid, Spain by well-known and highly acclaimed photography duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot.
While they’ve been released online, they will be out in magazines and on the street by July 2010.
Click to Enlarge. Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani 2010 Fall Winter
Click to Enlarge. Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani 2010 Fall Winter
Obligatory PR Insight
It is good for the sport.
No, really, it is.
As raunchy or as naked as it is or one might think it is, sex-sells. Sex-appeal and sport sells more. Therefore, by appealing to the other set of masses who may not be completely interested in the sport itself, their attention has been captured.
Face it, hot-blooded women, who go shopping and hold credit cards, will remember Beckham, they will remember Cannavaro; they will remember Dolce & Gabbana, they will remember Giorgio Armani.
It is more simple than it is complicated and breaks down to basic human nature and marketing 101: give the public what they want and appeal to their inner desires.
Fashion as always done it well and, thus, pairing with the most sought-after and well-known footballers does not hurt either.
And on an actual serious note, this is a prime example of the battle of the upper-market fashion industry, to gain revenue, in a shrinking luxury market.
In this segment, the use of football stars, D&G set the standard in their usual front-and-center way in 2006, plastering their half-naked adverts of the Italian National Football Team across Europe (see above). I would know, I was in Europe that summer and saw them…everywhere: in the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Especially, in Italy, of course — in fact, in every metro station at least thrice over.
Armani stepped it up a few notches with their David and Victoria Beckham campaigns. From the 50-foot high posters, to the magazine spreads and of course the added publicity of the most infamous WAG and her husband, it was a match made in advertising-fashion-football heaven.
But again, D&G came back with a bite, using new members who weren’t featured in the 2006 Men’s National campaign in their 2010 World Cup Men’s National Team campaign.
That being said, at the same time, Armani wasn’t far behind and started early with Cristiano Ronaldo sending out teasers of their adverts a good six-months before the World Cup 2010 even started.
It’s quite easy to infer that the battle will continue and may become more outlandish — especially if D&G has anything to do with it — over the years to come.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Calvin Klien got into the mix (remember their underwear adverts with Antonio Sabato Jr. etc. in the 1990s) or Marc Jacobs (he’s already used Victoria Beckham in a very large-scale campaign, only a matter of time before he invites her husband or someone similar.)
D&G’s advertisements are specifically well-known for pushing the envelope with their imagery. Only time will tell, but men’s fashion advertising, especially if dealing with international sports, is only going to be raising the bar, until there is nothing left but a loin cloth…literally.
~*~
And in cased you missed it — here are Ronaldo’s the Spring/Summer advertisements released earlier in 2010:-
Click to Enlarge. Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani 2010 Spring Summer
Click to Enlarge. Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani 2010 Spring Summer
Click to Enlarge. Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani 2010 Spring Summer
Click to Enlarge. Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani 2010 Spring Summer
Click to Enlarge. Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani 2010 Spring Summer
Click to Enlarge. Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani 2010 Spring Summer
He. Is. Man. Candy. — who walks that fine, uber thin, extra petite line between fashion and gay porn.
–
Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’ . She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida with a minor in Dance (’07) and an M.A. in International Administration from the University of Miami (’08). She loves Twitter and all things social media, so you should find her @SashaHalima or get a copy of the ‘Little Pink Book’ delivered to your Kindle.
Copyright © 2009-2010 Sasha H. Muradali. All Rights Reserved.
