Annals of Advertising: Gucci’s Bottom Line

You can always count on Gucci for print campaigns that get noticed. This fashion line will do what it takes, even if it means carving a “G” into a model’s pubic hair. Compared to that, the spring/summer print campaign is subtle, if by subtle you mean posing a model under a big horse’s butt. Indeed, there are statuesque bottoms all over the new campaign, which was shot by Ines van Lamsweerde and Vinoohd Matadin. The girl in the images is model Natasha Poly, who seems to be having fun. (That alone sets the campaign apart from most others, in which the models usually look hungry and unhappy.) Is there symbolism at work in these images? Perhaps the message is about how the vitality of fashion props up the edifice of high culture. I give the campaign a B+. —David Schonauer