When designing the Tank Française, the words of the Cartier Creative Director of jewelry & horology, MARIE-LAURE CÉRÈDE were: « The new Tank Française reflects a creative conviction: as with a cut stone whose raw material must be found, it was a matter of capturing its radical form, simplifying its essential lines and stripping them of all embellishments to return to the genesis of the myth.».

The objective was exactly to get back to the genesis of the myth – playing with two icons of “Frenchness” and culture: Catherine Deneuve and the cinema avant-garde. A myth made of timeless elegance and radical audacity.

The cinematographic avatars of French elegance.

Embodied by Catherine Deneuve, the face of French elegance and an icon of cinema, & Rami Malek, the spot shows two heroes crossing paths over several decades - one cinematographic story through time, playing with the history of French cinema and the ages of the heroin as the silhouette of the Tank Française evolves. Their attraction remains high, while the elegance of the watch never fades. Simplicity of forms, radicality of the myth, timelessness of French refinement were the key codes to follow.

To illustrate this, a combination of Al and CG were used to recreate and seamlessly connect this iconic moment in French cinema, smoothly connected. The two icons were brought together on screen through the ages to embody the permanence of style and chic through time.

Time changes, elegance remains.

Paying tribute to Paris, French New Wave cinema and to the idea of creative freedom upheld by Cartier, this campaign supports a narrative about the icons of both film and watchmaking that transcend time and generations.

The innovative usage of AI (at this time) was also a statement about technology in art: the possibility to make dreams come true (like having all versions of Catherine Deneuve in one movie) but remaining in the realm fiction. As luxury is deeply rooted into authenticity, Cartier aims to magnify the stories told, never to create a fake neo-reality.

Cinematographic spirit: the entire ecosystem has been though as the display of a continuous cinematographic thread. The portfolio of content (film, BTS as extra scenes, interviews with characters playing their own roles, KV as cinema billboards…) is built with the same rigor, style and spirit, as episodes of the same story – for true cultural unity. No hierarchy of content, but pieces of a 360° moment in cinema.

IA usage: pioneering the usage or Al at the service of luxury creativity, the challenge was to incorporate real time acting with archival content through a delicate marriage that celebrates the spirit and elegance of the Maison. With Guy Ritchie as a director, and Rami Malek and Catherine Deneuve as actors, we recreated the canvas of the iconic film scenes, while AI was the touch of magic that allowed us to integrate authentic images from the original movies as a cinematographic bootleg.

Or ex aequo

Grand Prix Stratégies du Luxe 2023

Category: CAMPAGNES DE PUBLICITÉ (advertising campaigns)

Sub-category: Watchmaking, Jewelry

Movie Digital media performance : 1,6Bn impressions / 210M completed video views

Website performance : X18 sessions on tank française page – 1M new visitors

+17% time spent on page ( 49s)

Print performance : 335 insertions / 49M Circulation, 13 Covers in print titles