Becks for H&M Superbowl Commercial…
Oh David, what are you doing to us? So many girls all over the country, dropping to the floor as they go weak at the knees falling for the OBE awarded, England footballer. After increasing numbers of football scandals have broken out across the vast amounts of tabloids and gossip magazines in recent years, Beckham has managed to avoid such bad press. He has stayed true to his ‘Mr Nice Guy’, affable, family man aura – enabling us to let his, shall we say, ‘lack of public speaking skills’ to let slide. For talking is exactly what he doesn’t need to do in his latest collaboration with high-street clothes brand H&M.
In the past, we have seen Becks strip down to his undies with his equally attractive other half Victoria, for Emporio Armani. He has also been the face of Gillette, his stupendous good looks succeeding in convincing the nation that Gillette really is ‘the best a man can get’. So it was only a waiting game before we saw who snapped up the 36-year-old stud next, to be the face (and body) for a new campaign. In the past, H&M have seen collaborations with the likes of Jimmy Choo, Karl Largerfeld, Stella McCartney and most recently, Versace. This time, Beckham has been part of the creative process, accordingly spending around 18 months developing the ideas and turning them into a tangible bodywear collection to be sold in 1,800 stores.
Tonight, as we speak we see the annual return of the American NFL Super Bowl: a huge facilitator in the world of advertising. Brands literally having bidding wars to confirm their slots in the ad breaks. So begs the question, will David Beckham be making his H&M debut tonight? The answer is yes, and most certainly at a price…a whopping $3.5m (£2.2million). The advert shows Becks filmed in black and white, modelling in just his £7.99 ‘Bodywear’ to The Animals' 1965 blues cover of Nina Simone’s ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’. The slow panning and extreme close up shots of his large assortment of bodily tattoos and muscles of steel are certainly not a mistake in advertising techniques, if the YouTube hits its raking up are anything to go by.
We will have to wait and see if the the sales in the shops share the same success. David is certainly not shy in expressing his grand plans for the collection, saying “I want to be as big as Calvin Klein, to achieve something like that.”
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