Bolinger Champagne Ads

I was thinking of types of adverts I could look at that would include things rich people tend to buy all the time, that become a part of my life. A first thought was caviar but after scowering the internet and library I found... caviar doesn't really need to be advertised it's just too much of a social icon that well, the rich buy it anyway. Champagne however has crazy amounts of different brands and bottles and tastes and price. This you think would make champagne adverts easy to find... think again. The most exciting I have found have been this Bollinger for James Bond ads... the only Ads Bollinger have done, but I think the link is quite exciting. Since my product is bottled and expensive and what not I think it's important that I understand how to give my bottle centre stage. It's not like Twinings where I can give everything a back story, I can't advertise on TV because the rich won't watch it which means my product has to be a symbol of rich life, everything has to mean something, I can't get away with absolutely mental adverts because I'm trying to promote a life of class... anyway enough waffling onto the Bollinger Ads.

Little bit of history of where the adverts started

"The literary James Bond first encounters Bollinger in the book Diamonds Are Forever, when Tiffany Case sends a quarter-bottle to his cabin on the Queen Elizabeth.

 The relationship began when the Broccoli-Wilson family, producers of the Bond films, sought a wine to match Bond's impeccable taste and refined personality. Not surprisingly, they chose Champagne Bollinger, long acknowledged as one of the world's finest Champagnes. A mutual friendship developed between the Broccoli-Wilson family and the Bollinger family, and Champagne Bollinger has remained a Bond favorite even as the torch has been passed from Roger Moore to Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and now Daniel Craig. " (http://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/product/champagne-bollinger)

 I think it's very important to note the prominence of the bottle in the print ads. The champagne is always centre stage, but given different scenarios and background for the different Bond films it's promoting. Side by side promotion has always interested me, such as product placement in music videos/films, just because of the amount of people you can reach through this media. This however is a complete partnership between two brands, both of which together promote a lavish lifestyle, helping each other in using the visual language and semiotics to achieve this. As the quote from jamesbondlifestyle.com says Bollinger is acknowledged as one of the world's finest Champagnes, which represents Bond as someone who lives like a king and then links that back to Bollinger with Bond's 'impeccable taste' and 'refined personality' all targeting the wealthy and superior. 

The ads themselves use images such as ice in one, giving you the feeling of a nice ice cold glass of champagne, with connotations of fresh, pure, clean and perfect. Another shows the Champagne in front of flames in the shape of a woman's naked body holding a gun, giving a whole different side to the champagne, promoting danger and sex, giving the champagne a whole new image, and targeting a different type of person within the wealthy. The link between the films and champagne gives them an endless meaning that they can place with Bollinger, they can keep re-inventing the brand, linking it to the different story lines in films, making sure that then with each ad they appeal to a whole different kind of person. Suiting one of my favourite quotes, learnt in a seminar with Janine, ' meaning is in a constant state of flux/change'. This keeps the brand relevant and takes them through generations of people. As long as Bond films are made I'm pretty sure Bollinger/Bond ads will be generated.