Omega Photo Shoot

[Ace]

Anorak
A High Old Time

8 Oct 2003

WE love artists, creative types, the kind of people who can say with a straight face: "Something wonderful must have happened. Somebody must have come with a magic wand and said: 'Make this a pleasant couple of days'."

The next governor of California

We would probably have just said something prosaic like: "Yeah, it was fun."

But that (and our total inability to use a camera) explains why Arthur Elgort earns a fortune as a Vogue fashion photographer and we're stuck in the basement of Anorak Towers working for peanuts. Literally.

And while we spend out days staring blankly at the walls still stained with the blood of the last member of staff to ask for a pay rise, Arthur points his camera at Cindy Crawford and Anna Kournikova as he shoots Omega's latest advertising campaign.

And Hello! goes behind the scenes to give its readers "a fascinating glimpse of some of the world's biggest stars at work and play".

For also on the shoot was Brosnan, Pierce Brosnan, who "was in his element surrounded by beautiful women".

"He made it his business to go up to all the extras and asked me to take pictures of him with them - and the head watch-repairman," says Arthur.

"He knows how to work a room - he could get the votes if he ever decided to run for governor of California!"

Well, if a sexually incontinent beefcake with a fondness for Adolf Hitler can get elected, then so could Grover out of Sesame Street.

=====================================

Photos from the Omega photoshoot are in the Oct 14th isue of the U.K. magazine Hello and are currently up at an Ebay auction:





Ace

[Ace]

www.omegawatches.com/omega/userEvent?ID=31606

www.omegawatches.com/omega/user_event_home

OMEGA launches new international advertising campaign

London, September 23 2003


Prestige Swiss watch manufacturer OMEGA, Official Timekeeper of the London Fashion Week, today launched its new international advertising campaign in the presence of Cindy Crawford and star photographer Arthur Elgort. The stars unveiled the new campaign at a press conference together with Mr Stephen Urquhart, president of OMEGA. In the evening, there was a vernissage of unique behind-the-scenes stills from the photoshoot, including photographs taken by Cindy Crawford.



Click on the thumbnails below to get full size downloadable images.

The new “Choices” advertising campaign goes back to the roots of OMEGA advertising by selecting the very best artists. Famous Vogue photographer Arthur Elgort was commissioned to shoot OMEGA ambassadors Cindy Crawford, Anna Kournikova and Pierce Brosnan especially for the campaign. The “Choices” theme aims to place these celebrities in credible, everyday environments that reflect their own lifestyle choices. The shoot was also unique in that it was the first time three OMEGA ambassadors had been brought together at the same time for an advertising photoshoot.

On the resulting visuals we see Cindy Crawford in the classic Austin Healey sports car, Anna Kournikova in the opulent setting of a top New York Hotel and Pierce Brosnan in one of New York’s hottest clubs. The emphasis is placed on warm and emotional imagery, which is associated with a particular OMEGA timepiece. The visuals are intended to speak for themselves, with a concise text allowed only in exceptional cases. The new OMEGA advertising is scheduled to appear in high-quality fashion magazines and daily newspapers from October.

An additional photographer and film crew followed the whole two-day photoshoot, producing a fly-on-the wall record of the work on the new OMEGA campaign. Cindy Crawford also benefited from the advice of one of the world’s most renowned photographers to move behind the camera for the first time ever and produce her own professional-quality stills.

Cindy Crawford and Arthur Elgort both appeared at the press conference alongside OMEGA President Stephen Urquhart to unveil the new campaign. Later on in the evening they were joined by other local celebrities at the Haunch of Venison Gallery off Bond Street, where guests were treated to a special exhibition of behind-the-scenes stills photography from the two-day photoshoot, as well as visuals from the new campaign and the photographs taken by Cindy Crawford during the shoot.

The new OMEGA advertising campaign will appear worldwide from mid-October 2003.

[curious george]

::muses::

Grover for Governor. I like it!

cg

[Ace]

Three cheers for the Grovernator! ;D

Ace

[sparklingblue]

I guess Pierce is smart enough *not* to do that.

Thanks for the pics and links!

[Ace]

[curious george]

I think that was very cool of him to make sure that the "working people" got to get their pictures taken with him -- although somehow when I write that, it makes him sound egotistical, which I'm guessing wasn't the case.

cg

[Ace]

Yes it sounds different when you put it that way.... as if he's being magnanimous to all the "little people" who might not care one way or the other. ;D ;D ;D

Ace

[sparklingblue]

We know he did it because he's a very nice guy.

[Ace]

Copied from another board which did not list the original source:

....Pierce, like Cindy Crawford, has been working with Omega for seven years, was photographed in a trendy night spot in New York, surrounded by gorgeous women. Although Arthur had never worked with him before, he reports that Pierce very easy to get on with. "He was very jolly," he remembers. "He arrived early and was terrific. There wasn't one person he didn't go up to and tell a good Irish joke to. He is the kind of guy you meet in a pub and strike up a conservation with. He's a very 'up' guy and probably appreciates that everything has gone pretty well for him."....


And a glimpse of the new PB print campaign at the after launch party:



Ace

[sparklingblue]

Hey, I'd buy one of these watches. ;D Nice shot!

(Did you see that? The lock on his forehead is back!! )

[Ace]

From Time Zone

[Yuliya]

Ohhhhh! I wonder what he said... (And whether the blonde girl always wears her watch on her right wrist or only when being photographed for Omega. )

Why do I only get conventional Omega photos?! New, but conventional!

[Ace]

The "blonde girl".... don't you recognize the most famous tennis player never to have won an actual tournament, Russia's very own Anna Kournikova?

Yes he must have said something particularly outrageous because he's trying to look far too innocent.

Ace ::who always wears her watch on her right hand and is right handed::

[Yuliya]

If some left-handed people wear their watches on their left hand (I'm one of them) I see no reason for some right-handed people not to wear their watches on their left hand. BTW, there are watches to wear on one's rigt hand - with the little protruding thingie on the other side of the watch. The selection is limited, though.

No, I didn't recoginze Kournikova. I wouldn't have even if she wasn't holding her hand to her face - I don't remember what she looks like. Sport isn't my thing. I merely wondered what he said. Just like Ace said - he looks far too innocent.

[curious george]

Yuliya said:

Just like Ace said - he looks far too innocent.

But what a great expression the photographer captured!

cg

[migs]

Where's PB's wedding ring in the pics? Did Omega have him take it off for the shoot . . . like anyone doesn't know he's married?

migs

[Ace]

They're selling the watch, I doubt they want competing jewlery to re-focus attention. I'm surprised they have Kournikova wear a ring but then her diamond compliments the jewels around her watch face.

Ace

[curious george]

Wow, you folks obviously pay more attention to details than I do.

::wonders why anyone is checking hands with that smile there::

cg

[Ace]

The smile is grand but there's always time for the hands, they're fantatsic. Truth be told I never notice whether he's wearing a wedding ring or not, what do I care, it's not mine.

Ace