Natalie Portman’s baby’s father, French dancer Benjamin Millepied (whose name funnily enough means “thousand feet” in French) is putting his famous feet in the service of Air France and it’s advertising campaign, “Making the sky the best place on Earth.”
The one minute advert was choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj, the Provence-based balletic wunderkind and shot on a mirror in the Moroccan film town of Ouarzazate (The Mummy and Gladiator were filmed here), The film “delivers a poetic metaphor of flight,” according to Air France, which posted the ad first on its Facebook site.
The ad is sleek, cool and accompanied by a Mozart adagio.
In contrast, British Airways new ad campaign, “To fly, to serve” clocks in at about 1:30 and looks more like a Merchant Ivory period film. The British Airways ad hearkens back to the glory days of travel when those brave young men risked life and limb (and woke up really early in the morning before having their tea) to get their flights in on time. It looks like one of those World War Two Noel Coward films where all the brave young pilots get shot down while everyone else keeps calm and carries on. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great looking ad but its stiff upper lipitude is an interesting contrast to Air France’s Millepied mirror act.
