What does the Berlin wall, french designer handbags, and Mikhail Gorbachev have in common? Well if you were thinking Gorbachev is the new face of Louis Vuitton and he did an ad for them driving in front of the remains of the Berlin wall, then you are right! Apparently the only way to catch the eye of young and rich socialites nowadays is to bring an old world communist feel into the mix.
Is this what Gorbachev meant by perestroika? I always thought it had something to do with economic reforms, but this is much more interesting. The ad shows Gorabchev sitting in his limo with a bit of an uneasy almost constipated look on his face passing the remains of the Berlin Wall, with an open Louis Vuitton bag beside him. The ad says, "A journey brings us face to face with ourselves."
The former communist strong hand of the Soviet Union faces the ruins of "communist" Berlin without a look of remorse. Is this ad in a way giving the people the satisfaction of dragging Gorbachev's face through the mud of what he once supported and believed in, now in ruin and demise? That would be what we would like to think, but in actuality he's driving in a limo with Louis Vuitton, I don't really feel like he's suffering.
Or maybe this is one of the conciliation prizes for winning the Nobel peace prize, much like a beauty pageant, most of what politics is anyway now, a popularity contest. This may also be a way of showing people that he really isn't such a bad guy after all, he is just an average General Secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. He is human, and just enjoys the finer things in life, and if he doesn't get them, well you know how this ends.
All these options are great, but instead of this being Gorbachev's big comeback as an up and coming fashion model, I think this may be Louis Vuitton's ploy to show the world that most anybody will do anything for some money, or a good chunk of it at that! It is also possible Gorbachev's contract was in French, because Louis Vuitton is french, and he was legally bound to the ad, that would explain the puss on his face. Just like how many licks it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop, we may never know.
When looking at the ad, I'm sure you didn't notice the array of magazines atop the Louis Vuttion bag, well you may have noticed them, but didn't think too deep as to what they said. Well someone with loads of time and a magnifying glass did read them. The headline of the magazine says, "The Murder of Litvinenko: They Wanted to Give Up the Suspect for $7,000."
The reference is to Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB spy who died last November after being poisoned, On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused President Vladimir Putin of his murder. Was the message placed there deliberately? And what did it mean? Louis Vuitton stated that the message was not deliberate, but a stylist just randomly brought in Russian magazines to the set, to make the ad look more authentic. But it feels natural to question Gorbachev's connection to the KGB, Litvinenko's death, and president Putin. Is this the continuation of Mikhail's glasnost where there was freedom of information and no censorship for mass media. Is Louis Vuitton carrying out his word? It is very hard for me to believe that in an industry where sesame seeds are meticulously glued on to burger buns with magnifying glasses that those magazines would coincidentally, controversially end up in this particular ad.
This brings me to the conclusion, throughout all this questioning and efforts, Louis Vuitton still comes out on top because despite all of this controversy they are still selling a very expensive bag. Like the old saying goes, "Any publicity is good publicity!" Louis Vuitton is not just another mindless fashion staple, but a profound media genius!
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