Former Astronauts Are Over the Moon for Louis Vuitton

Having managed to convince everyone from Madonna (who was reportedly paid $10 million) to Mikhail Gorbachev to appear in its ads, Louis Vuitton looked to the heavens for its newest campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather. In ads that will break in July magazines, former NASA astronauts Sally Ride, the first woman in space; Buzz Aldrin, who took the first steps on the moon; and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell regard the moon from a world-weary pick-up truck. Catching the moonlight just so is a $1,530 monogram canvas Icare satchel propped on the truck’s curvy hood. Shot by Annie Leibovitz on a plateau in the California desert, the campaign is intended to commemorate the 40th anniversary of man’s conquest of the Moon, according to Vuitton, “elevating the theme of travel as a personal journey to a celebration of a voyage of unsurpassed significance for all mankind.” Meanwhile, the campaign marks Vuitton’s first steps into integrating print and online marketing with a companion website, louisvuittonjourneys.com, that launches on July 2 with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from the Leibovitz shoot. Click the image above for a teaser video, complete with spookiness-inducing triple-camera perspective.

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