This document provides a ranking and analysis of the spring/summer 2016 advertising campaigns from 5 top French luxury brands: Chanel, Saint Laurent, Céline, Louis Vuitton, and Dior. The author evaluates each campaign based on criteria like memorability, emotion, storytelling, shareability, and brand identity. Chanel's campaign, shot by Karl Lagerfeld in Brooklyn, is ranked first for its stunning contrast of high fashion in a busy urban setting. Saint Laurent and Céline also effectively capture their brands' identities. Louis Vuitton and Dior's campaigns are criticized for lacking direction and memorability.

1. Ranking
Passionate about digital and luxury, I decided to es-
tablish a ranking of the best advertising campaigns
for each season. This ranking focuses on the spring
summer 2016 campaigns published in January 2016
fashion magazines.
The ranking is purely subjective, although many cri-
teria are taken into consideration. I start from the
premise that a good campaign should be memora-
ble, create emotion, tell a story, be easily shareable,
and reflect the identity of the brand. I welcome any
form of creativity as long as it is relevant to the
brand.
To start, I only focused on the 5 French luxury
brands with the largest advertising budgets, being
Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Saint Laurent and Céline.
Alexis Caulliez

2. We notice the visual identity of Dior in its
gray tones and black & white portraits.
Dior selected safe classic black and
white pieces accessorised with bags and
shoes. Dior used models from its last
fashion show. The campaign does not tell
any ‘story’ and has little movement.
Photograph: Patrick Demarchelier
Starring: Sofia Mechetner, Roos Abels, Staz
Lindes, Maartje Verhoef, Grace Hartzel and
Binx Walton.
5. Dior
Last year, the spring summer ad-
vertising campaign was shot by
Peter Lindberg starring Jennifer
Lawrence. I am very disappoint-
ed by the lack of research and
style of these images. With all
the respect I have for Patrick
Demarchelier, it seems quite
rushed and probably due to the
absence of creative direction
since Raf Simons left

3. 4. Louis Vuitton
Photograph: Bruce Weber
Starring: Sarah Brannon, Rianne Van Rom-
paey, Jean Campbell and Jaden Smith
This season Louis Vuittion
releases Series 4 campaigns
on the theme of Heroines. The
LV logo is visible on the jackets
and accessories of the brand.
Nicolas Guesquiere called Jaden
Smith to star in this campaign.
When I see this campaign, I
feel like Im standing in a new
medieval era. Indeed, the red
bricks remind me of a castle
and the jacket with patterns of
the armour of a king. I think the
contrast is a bit messy and the
message hard to understand.
What is Nicolas Guesquiere
telling us? The 2 other series
4 campaigns are much better,
however I did not take these
into consideration as they pro-
more accessories and not ready
to wear.

4. 3. Céline
Photograph: Juergen Teller
Starring: Vera Van Erp, Regitze Christensen,
and Karly Loyce.
We can quickly recognise the identity of
Celine through the logo and recognisable
models. Visually, the image is obviously
retouched, as if the brand denounces the
practices of the industry in this regard. The
message is strong and in tune with the rebel
image of the brand.

5. 2. Saint Laurent
Photograph: Hedi Slimane
Starring: Steffi Soede and Signe Lunde
models featured in the fashion
show and they both have the
usually skinny grungy look typ-
ical of Slimane. I appreciate the
styling and the pieces selected
for the campaign, the clothes
have movement.
Hedi Slimane brought some changes to
his style of campaigns. First, the black and
white is less contrasted and visually it looks
smoother. Then he added a texture picture on
the top right, giving a bit more context to the
image shot on a white background. He uses

6. 1. Chanel
Photograph: Karl Lagerfeld
Starring: SLineisy Montero and Mica Arga-
naraz
Which luxury brand can dare to shoot a campaign in
the middle of New York suburbs? Karl Lagerfeld did
it for Chanel and the result is stunning. I adore the
contrast of the high end clothes and the busy envi-
ronment of Brooklyn. The lighting is perfect and the
models give life to the collection. The warmth of the
lighting makes you feel like summer.