“A horse can tell if you’ve only slept two hours the night before… If you’re anxious, the horse can feel it. Armani definitely could,” says Dev Patel, the actor best known for Slumdog Millionaire, told the New York Times.
Patel’s latest movie The Green Knight is a medieval fantasy in which the star spends a lot of time in the saddle, making Armani one of his main co-stars. Patel told the reporter that he’d never ridden before and attempted to bribe his horses with apples he’d steal from the hotel in Dublin.
Patel’s insight in the emotional sensitivity of horses is spot-on, as all of us horse owners can attest. Taking a different tactic to delve into humankind’s connection to the equine comes Burberry’s latest ad for its new men’s fragrance, Burberry Hero.
The ad stars “it” man/heartthrob/villain Adam Driver (Girls, Star Wars) as he keeps pace alongside a stunning galloping palomino on the beach before both man and beast dive into the water. We haven’t seen such stunning underwater horse footage since The Black Stallion! What happens next is anyone’s guess, but it appears that Driver and the horse become one in a mythological centaur way that defies explanation (unless you’re a member of Burberry’s press team, see below).
To say the video and the images from the campaign have gone viral is an understatement, with much ado about Driver’s six-pack, among other notable anatomical marvels. But despite what fashion bible W Magazine thinks of the ad, “We’re not talking about Adam Driver’s Burberry Hero campaign because of the horse,” we at Horse-Canada are in fact talking about it precisely because of the horse.
For starters, let’s not forget that Burberry’s logo is of a rider carrying a shield while astride a horse decked out in medieval armor. So a horsey campaign is in keeping with the brand, making such gorgeous cinematography that celebrates the horse as this one does (and yes, the man, too) not a surprise. But a deeper dive into the creative thought behind the ad takes it to a whole other level.
Burberry’s press machine explains the ad’s imagery this way: “The campaign challenges the traditional stereotypes of masculinity, bringing together horse and man, and creating a modern myth… The powerful imagery of a horse against the vast coastline explores Riccardo Tisci’s (the label’s new chief creative officer) codes of duality and the power of the animal kingdom. Through the vivid metaphor of a man becoming a mythical creature in the powerful sea, the campaign illustrates the story of a man leaping into the unknown, overcoming struggles and transforming into something new, while remaining true to himself.”
Okay then, enough said. Seriously, we get it. Personally, I just like how pretty the horse (and Adam Driver) looks.
Check the ad out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoErx-fGiPw&t=3s
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