The Gap and Audrey Hepburn...

[Daisy Buchanan]

Hehe!

 

[BegintheBeguine]

wait a MINUTE! I'm ready to head out the door in a black turtleneck and slim black pants!....oh, that's because I saw Nico on an Andy Warhol documentary tonight

 

[Lady Day]

C'mon that would be hysterical, The Duke rapping:

Da ha, da ha. Da ha ha ha ha haaaaa. I love (and own) that song


As for the commercial, I think its silly. Ive never liked the idea of dead folks CG'ed into modern or sureal environments. But Audrey is on purses, t shirts, and jackets now, so make whaever you can on her status I guess.

LD

 

[Matt Deckard]

Well... It's not morbid to me... Macabre -- no. Hmmm.

I don't see the connection between reviving swing dancing and reviving a person. I don't connect swing dancing to the past, it's not a vintage dance to me. Audrey is vintage and dead.

The dance sequence was very particular in music and style of dance... it was beannik, bohemian, avante garde. It wasn't for AC/DC. They totally bastardized the dance scene from Funny Face is what I thought, and unless they do it for a farce it takes away the moment that was created. The Sparticus selling Pepsi commercial was funny It held the moment in my opinion Spartacus.

Anywho, you can't change history unless you want to make a profit. Audrey dancing to this music and taken out of context to such an extreme I think was a mistake. I think the commercial should have just been a cut of the original scene freom the movie, though I realize the music used would be too slow and the viewers wouldn't relate. It is good for the GAP, though not good for my mind.

 

[Phil]

I doubt the average Gap shopper nowadays has any idea who Audrey Hepburn even was, the sort of roles she played, the kind of person she was offscreen, or anything else about her. And now whenever she's mentioned they'll think "Oh yeah, the chick in the skinny black pants."

I know this feeling. I was so excited when I saw the commercial come on. Come on, it's Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn!!! She is called the most beautiful person in the world by some people. And then to see her dance to AC/DC, as much as I like them, seems so mismatched. And at school, some of the kids talk about her as if she were a nobody. I think GAP should at least credit her in that commercial and in the print ads, lest she start to be known as "The skinny black pants chick from the GAP commercial."

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I doubt the average Gap shopper nowadays has any idea who Audrey Hepburn even was, the sort of roles she played, the kind of person she was offscreen, or anything else about her. And now whenever she's mentioned they'll think "Oh yeah, the chick in the skinny black pants."

I know this feeling. I was so excited when I saw the commercial come on. Come on, it's Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn!!! She is called the most beautiful person in the world by some people. And then to see her dance to AC/DC, as much as I like them, seems so mismatched. And at school, some of the kids talk about her as if she were a nobody. I think GAP should at least credit her in that commercial and in the print ads, lest she start to be known as "The skinny black pants chick from the GAP commercial."

You raise a very good point. Your friends are exactly the demographic that this ad is aimed at. So, the lovely Ms Hepburn will be known as "The Skinny Black Pant Chic" unless the Gap comes out and actually gives her the credit that she deserves. I know a lot of us love her here, and would love to see a return to a time when everybody knew who she was. But, this commercial isn't going to do that. Let's face it, the point of this commercial is to sell pants, not to raise the awareness level of Audrey Hepburn. For me, personally, it doesn't even make me want to buy the pants.

 

[Samsa]

Lauren, I was just wondering, in case I'm missing a certain aspect of this commercial. You say "an an activist for a lot of different causes", is this ad or the gap promoting a particular cause? If they are, I might just have a bit more respect for it. Just curious, sorry, don't mean to put you on the spot

I just came upon this article, which notes that Audrey's son allowed the clip to be used contingent upon a donation to the Audrey Hepburn's Children Fund. I still don't like the commercial, but I guess this information makes me feel a little better about it.

 

[tallyho]

the new Mustang was promoted using footage of Steve McQueen. As evidence of this, I offer some consumer interviews done after the Steve McQueen / Mustang commercials aired. Most of those in the younger demographic had no idea who he was, but they agreed he was a very cool-looking guy. Evidently some things DO cross generations, and cool may be one of them.

I am big Steve Mcqueen fan ( even have model of the Bullit Mustang on my desk next to me). When I first saw the commercial. With the tie in to field of dreams, I got goose bumps! I even got a tear after watching it( so I am wuss, what of it!) I wanted to go right out an buy one! cant fit 3 car seats in one unfortunately.

I have mixed feelings on the use of dead acors in commercials in movies. I gues for me it comes down to if i think the person would have done it when they were alive, then I am okay with it.

I think the Mustang commercial was not targeted at the 20 somethings, it was targeted at the 35-55 crowd. certainly worked on me!

Does anyone remember th HBO tales from the crypt episode were they used Bogarts image? I think Issabella Rossalini was in it too, good choice!

 

[Doh!]

Part of me feels the commercial is very clever; part of me doesn't really care, 'cause I'm not gonna go out any buy skinny pants (near impossible with my treetrunk legs, anyway).

But this raises the question: are skinny pants now in style so Gap made the commercial? Or did the Gap commercial come first, hoping to make skinny pants "in style" again? Levis has a skinny jean commercial out now as well, and it shows off this skinny couple being jerks, basically (the guy walks through fresh cement, the girl walks on top of a table or two). Don't know what the message is there.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Part of me feels the commercial is very clever; part of me doesn't really care, 'cause I'm not gonna go out any buy skinny pants (near impossible with my treetrunk legs, anyway).

But this raises the question: are skinny pants now in style so Gap made the commercial? Or did the Gap commercial come first, hoping to make skinny pants "in style" again? Levis has a skinny jean commercial out now as well, and it shows off this skinny couple being jerks, basically (the guy walks through fresh cement, the girl walks on top of a table or two). Don't know what the message is there.

I saw that commercial too. "I Walk The Line" is playing in the background. I saw it and thought the same thing as you. Not a fan.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

An Insecure Ing?©nue and an Uneasy Everyman by LIESL SCHILLINGER in today's NYT

I read this in today's NYT "Styles" section. It is a book review on Audrey Hepburn and goes on to speak of another book on Jimmy Stewart.

I thought she had some interesting things to say about the Gap Ad, it is mentioned in the text, and so I have pasted it below. I encourage you all to read the original article for the nice review of the Stewart book.

The link is here, though you may need a membership to the NYT to access it.

YOU cannot duplicate her or take her out of her era,‚Äù the filmmaker Billy Wilder said of Audrey Hepburn, whom he directed in 1953 in ‚ÄúSabrina,‚Äù when she was a 24-year-old ing?©nue. Oh can‚Äôt you? Turn on the television today, and you‚Äôll see her in Gap ads, clad in a black turtleneck and pants, her body as slender as a parenthesis, rocking out to the AC/DC metal ballad ‚ÄúBack in Black.‚Äù

She is not only duplicated, she’s quadruplicated — cloned and pasted in digital homage to the eternal sublime. On YouTube.com, where copies of the commercial have been posted, one awed viewer wrote: “Not many of the younger people know who she is. Now everyone will know her.”

It may be tempting to think that Ms. Hepburn never boogied down in quite that way. But watch her 1957 movie ‚ÄúFunny Face,‚Äù and you‚Äôll see her make those very moves, dancing in a smoky Parisian cafe to a jazz-hot Gershwin score. Then, as now, she embodied a fragile but proud feminine fierceness; then, she used her influence to advance the career of her beloved couturier, Hubert de Givenchy. Now her ?©lan is being used to hawk Gap‚Äôs ‚Äúskinny black pant.‚Äù

Ms. Hepburn’s newest biographer, Donald Spoto, the author of a dozen celebrity biographies, doesn’t see the current commercial homage as a comedown. Her “vulnerability and vivacity” endure, he told “Good Morning America” last weekend. In “Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn,” an intimate, respectful and nuanced portrait of this avatar of glamour, he reveals her human frailties and remarkable strength of character.

Ms. Hepburn was never the girl next door. The daughter of a chilly Dutch baroness and a Bohemian-born absent father, she grew up in Belgium, England and the Netherlands. During World War II, she danced to earn money for the Dutch resistance, until near-starvation made such exertion impossible. At war’s end, she was 16 years old and 5-foot-7, and weighed 90 pounds. Two years later and 20 pounds heavier, she was performing on the London stage, and in 1951, she was chosen to star in “Gigi” on Broadway and in the movie “Roman Holiday,” for which she won the Academy Award for best actress.

Ms. Hepburn played unattainable women in her movies: a princess on the run (“Roman Holiday”), a party girl with a hidden heart (“Breakfast at Tiffany’s”), a nun tormented by doubt (“The Nun’s Story”). But in person she was “considerate and unpretentious” and “could also be a clown,” Mr. Spoto writes.

She did not consider herself beautiful, nor did she think she was much of an actress. In the words of one of her sons, Sean Ferrer, she was “a very insecure person whose very insecurity made everyone fall in love with her.” She was, he said, “a star who couldn’t see her own light.”

 

[Story]

I'm sure Dieter and his monkey can hardly wait.

Your categories have become tiresome.
Now is the time on "Sprockets" when we dance.

 

[herringbonekid]

"....doesn’t see the current commercial homage as a comedown. Her “vulnerability and vivacity” endure...."


that's what i said. or words to that effect.

 

[Twitch]

Daisy- if they would have used the Johnny Cash original the commercial might have "flown," but the half-baked version sung by nobodys poor rendition is weak to say the least.

 

[katiemakeup]

I don't know how I feel to see people commercializing/modernizing classic performers, songs, movies etc. for making money or capitalizing on their own behalf. I understand wanting to market to young people and the masses~ and even bringing attention to something amazing that youngsters never would have know about in the first place. Sometimes it's cool and works and other times it's distasteful. As far as the styling goes- everything recycles, so it's not a shock to me. The skinny pants were in the 60's- then in the 80's (thanks Michael Jackson) and now in the modeling/fashionista & the Emo/Scenester world it's all about skinny jeans. [huh]

 

[Twitch]

There was a time not long ago when TV commercials used unknown singers/musicians to make copies of hit tunes because acquiring the rights for use of an original was prohibitively expensive. Some artists whined about how using their music in the context of selling something was unsavory somehow. Then Bill Gates sought to use the Stone's "Start Me Up" for the kick off of Windoze 95. Mick Jagger basically said, "Oh no we won't...he's offering HOW much!?!" Ever since original music has been finding its way into commercials for some reason. Could it be the now-collosal use payments?lol

 

[Nashoba]

All-time worst Corpse As Shill:

"I'm Harley Earl, back from the dead because I like these new Buicks so much..."

That one just flat creeped me out. I hated that one!
I'm not a big fan of most advertising campaigns though. Especially the ones that bring back the dead...it's just not right...
Nash

 

[Marc Chevalier]

At least they should have the decency to use the real corpse!

.

 

[katiemakeup]

At least they should have the decency to use the real corpse!

.

Eewww!!

HA HA HA!

 

[BJonas]

Saw it last night. Wanted to puke.

Didn't Duke Wayne "endorse" beer a few years ago?