Audrey Tautou, Chanel N°5... and a Leica M8

Chanel N°5 has been doing a combination of short film and TV ad as a form of branded entertainment marketing for a while now. They've been pretty good so far, definitely much better than watching the normal 30 second TV ad that nobody cares for. At least these are beautifully shot, tell a story, and are actually entertaining.

These short films usually pair a good film director with a famous actor, and in this latest one it's Jean-Pierre Jeunet with Audrey Tautou, who worked together before in Amelie, a great film by the way. A previous one featured Nicole Kidman directed by Baz Luhrmann, the same pair that did Australia with Hugh Jackman.

Anyway, another interesting point (at least for me), is that there's a scene where Audrey is very obviously shooting with a Leica M8 digital rangefinder. After seeing her holding the camera with the red logo clearly visible, she looks at the back and shuffles through some photos, giving you a clear view of both the front and the back of the camera. I'm not sure if it's product placement, but if it is it's certainly a great idea to link these 2 brands. Heck, the Leica is a beautiful $6,000 camera. And I want one, but that's beside the point.

The photography community online is all over this one and it seems to be getting quite a buzz in forums and blogs. Hey, I'm writing about it also. Seems to me like a much better way of marketing a product. Produce a very high quality piece of entertainment that's truly entertaining, put it "out there" on the web where people can watch it when they want to, embed it in their blogs and Facebook pages, and pass it on to their friends (as opposed to annoyingly interrupting a show on TV), and link brands to attract niche audiences at the same time. Maybe it's just because I'm into photography and I'm looking too much into it, but from what I've read online this ad has done a pretty good job of generating positive buzz for both Chanel N°5 and Leica amongst photographers, wether this was intentional or not. I'm sure many photographers will buy their partners Chanel N°5 for their birthdays just because of this film.