An In-Depth Look at Bruno Aveillan

By writing my first post, I discovered that the Vuitton advert I love so much was directed by Bruno Aveillan. I decided to find out a bit more about this director and here is what I found on his Wikipedia page:

Bruno Aveillan is a director, a photographer and a multimedia artist.

Bruno Aveillan was born in Toulouse and is one of France’s most distinguished and internationally sought after commercials director. After graduating from Ecole Supérieur des Beaux Arts in Toulouse, he worked in advertising as an art director and then joined Quad Productions in Paris in 1995 as a director. Since then, he has achieved international acclaim for directing highly sophisticated and superbly cinematographic commercials for prestigious clients such as Coca-Cola, Toyota, Louis Vuitton, Acura, Perrier, Audi, Orange, Club Med, Bailey’s, Lacoste, Nike, Volvo, Guerlain and Philips.
….
Aveillan has a highly developed artistic sensibility and innate talent for capturing extraordinary images that leave a lasting impression on the viewer, critics and industry trade alike. Having studied as a painter, his meticulous attention to detail and his devotion to unveiling the exquisite and the aesthetic, regardless the subject, is a testament to his passion and perfection.Aveillan first made his name in 1998 with awards-winning spots for Perrier “La Foule” and Paco Rabanne’s “XS”. By 2001, he was directing alongside Martin Scorsese, Wong Kar-Wai and Oliver Stone on the high-profile Orange spots for Euro RSCG BETC, Paris. In 1999, he succeeded the prestigious directors Lars von Trier and Roland Joffé to direct the new episode of the famous advertising saga CNP.
…
To the American audience, Aveillan is best known for his epic commercials; “Medusa”, “Dragon” and “Dagger” for Thermasilk (Agency JWT New York), Nintendo Game Boy “Symphony” (Agency Leo Burnett, Chicago), Miller “labels” (Agency The Martin Agency), Time Warner (Agency Beaucoup Chapeaux), Lexus “Button” (Agency Team One) and Lanvin “Oxygene” with supermodel Gisele Bündchen. Aveillan’s spot for Nissan Infiniti’s “Anthem”,  Chiat/Day Los Angeles, broke during the 2002 Academy Awards. His talent for creating whole universes and his ability to work with highly sophisticated visual effects is also apparent in Nintendo’s “Symphony”, Bailey’s “Floating”(Agency BBH London) and Audi Q7.Equally, his superbly sensual and poetic commercials Magnum “Five Senses”, Paco Rabanne “XS”, Gaz de France”La Dolce Vita” underline his artistic sensibility.
…
Today, Aveillan has won a multitude of awards and many of his commercials have become a reference for cinematographic brilliance. In 2008, Aveillan directed the first ever brand campaign for Louis Vuitton “Journeys” which won several awards such as the 2008 Gold Clio Award and the Gold Award at the 2008 London International Awards. He has also directed Mylene Farmer‘s experimental music video “The Farmer Project“. Aveillan also supports the action of NGOs such as Reporters Without Borders and the Food Bank for whom he has shot several commercials.

I decided to view his adverts thanks to YouTube and, as someone who has worked in experiential marketing and PR and who has taken a range of Black&White and Color photography courses, here is my opinion:

He has an extraordinary ability to capture the attitude or essence of a brand through the commercial. A great example of this is his Yaris advert, which is visually intriguing and quite amusing at the end. I thoroughly admire his ability to create these different worlds/realities and to pull the viewer into them despite the fact that these are adverts and thus are by nature short in duration (example: Maxmara Eau de Parfum). But my favorites are those that are more artistic and are consequently more tangentially related to the brand.

His commercials (I have tried to group them by similar types of work and I have posted my favorites to view below and provided the links for others as well as a few comments/thoughts overall – my top 2 favorites are in purple text):

———– Perfume and Luxury Adverts: ———–

Louis Vuitton adverts (full videos in my first post): shorter version with text and longer version without text: love love love these

Thermasilk: I am not that entranced by most of his Thermasilk ads (Maze, Medusa, Dagger, Dragon, Mythical Party, Sorceress) but I do particularly like his Firefly Thermasilk advert:

A Diamond Is Forever, “The Gift”: so enchanting and charming, wonderful visuals & convincing for the product

Lanvin “Oxygene”: very well done, visually quite captivating

Eau de Rochas: very interesting, but I prefer the Lanvin in terms of perfume adverts.

Maxmara Eau de Parfum: quite mysterious, most of it imparts the feeling of taking place in a different world.

Guerlain “Mahora“: could not find a version with functional audio, but the imagery is beautiful. I wish I could find a version with audio since I think I would like it more than his Lanvin work.

Faberge: quite fun, though I can imagine some of my crazier girlfriends in NYC having flights like this with their boyfriends and totally trashing their apartments:

Galleries Lafayette: don’t like it, don’t find it particularly creative. But some of the women are very beautiful.

Sephora: not one of his best, looks like fun & sexy but very unrealistic – if you ever did anything approaching that in Sephora they would killlll youuuuu

…..

———– Car Adverts: ———–

Lexus “Button”: quite intriguing and visually beautiful & captivating — but the fact it was for Lexus totally took me by surprise

Nissan Infiniti “anthem“: eh, don’t love it.

Audi Q7: far superior to most car adverts (not including the others by Aveillan) , but not my favorite of his

Bridgestone “Road Speak“: photography is great, but he has done better

Acura “Wilderness“: interesting, reminds me of the Bridgestone advert.

Acura “The Trap“: always saw this advert on TV and thought it was creative for the car industry

Peugeot 308 “Winds of Change“: again, reminds of me the Acura and Bridgestone adverts, but the best version of the three — the leaves as hands thing is really cool

Peugeot 206 “Osaka“: great song, very amusing

Peugeot Immanquables “Western“: not his best, at all

Peugeot Immanquables “Football“: not his best either, but better than the “Western” version

Volvo xC90 “Man” & “Woman“: both are different from his others, overall are ok.

Toyota ” Yaris“: very cute and funny twist at the end

Toyota Rav4 “Deflate“: very funny music to mix with the images, interesting/amusing idea but not his best

….

———– Technology Adverts: ———–

Nintendo Symphony: very visually engaging but I am still not that in love with it (and her “conducting” is absolutely dreadful, someone should have given her a lesson or two).

Time Warner: this is very cute, love the flying piggies, very imaginative & good song:

Time Warner “Remote Control“: highly amusing, but the previous superior

Time Warner “Singing in the Rain“: this looks like it would be really cute if there were audio

Philips “Robot“: far superior to commercials for a shaver, but not one of my favorites

……

———– Food & Beverage Adverts: ———–

Bailey’s “Floating”: love love love this, I wish this were a real place b/c I would totally want to rent it out for a night and have a fun party with my friends:

Magnum “Five Senses“: does a great job getting all the senses across but not my favorite

Perrier “La Foule”: this one won a whole slew of awards. I think it is quite fun and playful — I can’t believe it was made back in 1998, seems much more modern than that to me:

Perrier “Eau de Perrier“:quite face paced and entertaining, but I perfer the above.

Quezac (water) “Hunchback“: very cute idea and very well executed

Coca Cola Blak “Writer“: interesting, a little wacky….

Coca Cola “Rubber Rave“: this is super cute and imaginative

Miller “Labels“: seems very typical of his work, especially his automobile works but now translated to a beer company

…..

———– Telecom, Radio & Public Utilities Adverts: ———–

Europe 1 radio (1) and (2): both are kinda strange, 2 is better than 1, not a fan of either.

Orange baby adverts (1), (2) and (3) plus his “Children of the World” advert (apparently his first Orange advert in France — can’t find a version with audio): very cute but he has done better

SFR France with Estelle Hallyday : very cute and reflective of the crazy lives we lead in modern times. very good mobile telephone advert

SFR France with Dessailly: also good mobile telephone advert, prefer the Estelle Hallyday one though

This Pub Bouygues Telecom advert is particularly cool  for a telecom advert, but not one of my favorites he has done.

Gaz de France: this advert is breathtaking, totally amazing, my favorite after his Louis Vuitton work, rightly won the Imagina AWARD in 2003:

Gaz de France “Le Signe“: very interesting, very beautiful, haunting music. But I prefer the previous one.

Gaz de France “La Dolce Vita“: ok, prefer the first one

….

———– Financial Industry Adverts: ———–

CNP:  beautiful visually and the message is quite nice as well

Caisse d’epargne “Cosmonaut“: really nice & positive idea

Caisse d’epargne”bebe“: similar to above, again a really nice & positive idea

….

———– Other: ———–

Club Med: this advert parts (1) and (2) with Amy Smart is ok, the kids are cute but don’t love it.

World Cup 1998: his earlier work, much simpler than his later adverts. Not his best, but again much earlier work.

….

———– Non-Profit Work: ———–

Banque Alimentaire (food bank): rather interesting as well, wouldn’t have thought that it was an advert for the food bank at all

Reporters without Borders “Dogs“: strange

…..….

….

Mylene Farmer’s “The Farmer Project”:

Teasers 1-2-3: interesting but does not convey well what the entire project is about

Total Project = [Video w/intro ( 7:30) + a few seconds that are missing + Point de Suture (4:49)] OR [can be seen here in totality (13:19)]. Overall, interesting cinematography. The first half is a tad odd but the second half with the animals being set free is very touching and cute.

….

….…..

Short Film:

Short film (9:27): rather interesting, poetic, and visually moving. But I prefer his longer LV advert without text, I think it would serve as a better short film on its own (if LV hadn’t commissioned it).

…