JFK Campaigns for Omega

Have you ever wondered what makes luxury luxury?

I have been reflecting upon that recently, and I came to the conclusion that it is not platinum or diamond, and it is not the price you put into it, whatever pression the consumer society might put on all of us to think so.

The main focus in terms of luxury is exclusivity. If you acquire a luxury item, be it a painting, a jewel or a piece of cloth, you can be confident you will not see it on other walls or other people in the street like the next Kate Moss design for Topshop.

Making something available to a few gives it more value: because the luxury item is scarce, it almost necessarily has an iconic dimension to it. It has an intrinsic power to represent something wider and of greater importance.

It only comes to sense that James Bond would devote a few lines to Omega in Casino Royale, they know what luxury is.

The new Omega campaign is a strike of genius: choosing JFK to relaunch the Omega model that went to the moon with Armstrong is marketing at its finest. The former US president is, after all, the man who said: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him back safely to the earth.”, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Luxury is not easily attainable, it represents an achievement and is a goal you have to thrive for. It represents an accomplishment. It is hard work. It means something, which is probably the main reason why it is looked jealously upon and easily discarded. An Eames chair will not be sitting in everybody's living-room.

Omega took it to an extra dimension: I hope luxury is more attainable than the moon, because if I am honest, I want to be able to surround myself with it one day. Far from me the idea I will need £6,000 Alaia alligator boots, a 30 carats diamond or a Chagall on my bathroom wall to be happy, but I do want to earn enough money to not live in an Ikea house, wear beautiful clothes and sit in the orchestra rather than the L shaped corner behind the Third floor security fence when I go to the theater.

I want to believe that luxury is not quite the moon to reach, but maybe the moon is a lot more affordable than we think? The moon might be only a state of mind...

Champagnista V