Italian fashion house Gucci debuted their #GucciTheRitual digital campaign shot entirely by their models in quarantine. The digital campaign initially launched with a 16-second clip featuring creative director Alessandro Michele with each of the models in their homes, singing and dancing along to "Alright" by Britpop band Supergrass.
The global pandemic is forcing many companies to up the ante during the worldwide quarantine and stay-at-home orders. While some media outlets and musicians are turning to stylized FaceTime photoshoots, Gucci tapped into their models' creativity and created a campaign out of entirely user-generated content, featuring models in their everyday situations in quarantine at home.
#GucciTheRitual shows each of the models photographed at their private residences doing their regular quarantine routines: brushing their teeth, making homemade face masks, and hanging out with their pets. The campaign was art directed by Christopher Simmonds alongside creative director Alessandro Michele. Michele says the campaign is his most authentic and that the "extravagant hyper-naturalism that [he has] always tried to depict now emerges even more authentically."
Check out some of the images from the campaign below.
It'll be interesting to see how other brands, both high and low, will respond and follow after the debut of both Gucci's user-led campaign and Jacquesmus's FaceTime photoshoot with models like Bella Hadid and Barbie Ferreira. Even further, what will life be like post-COVID, and will shoots be able to bounce back from this polarizing time in our lives?
Will this be the future of advertising? What are your thoughts? Do you think these temporary solutions will lead to more permanent shifts in the industry?
Lead image by Achin Hepp, used under Creative Commons.
