Gucci Holiday 2023 Ad Campaign

Review of Gucci Holiday 2023 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Sabato De Sarno with Photographer Anthony Seklaoui and Film Director Marcell Rev

Gucci celebrates the shared experiences of joy and connection that bind us during the holiday season with its new 2023 Gift Giving campaign. The campaign features photography by Anthony Seklaoui and film direction by Marcell Rev.

Seklaoui’s photographs take shape as off-the-cuff portraits and tableaus snapped among the warm bustle of holiday parties. Characters meet the camera with a spontaneous gaze as if it has just caught their eye, while other shots investigate beautiful outfit details or candid moments of intimate connection. The chromatic interplay of reds, greens (a fortuitous circumstance that Gucci colors are also Christmas colors), and jewel tones pop against rich neutrals in the photographer’s bold use of flash.

But the most successful aspect of the campaign is undoubtedly its film component, which deepens and contextualizes these separate vignettes with a technically impressive cinematic approach. Set in a mythologized Manhattan, the film forms around the clever visual concept of a single camera shot moving backwards toward the viewer. The film opens in an apartment where an elegant couple returns from a holiday outing, then as the shot continues to pan backwards we cross over the street hundreds of feet below and through the window of another apartment where a holiday party among friends is just getting started. We cross again and through an intimate celebratory dinner, then through another party that has really heated up and finally end with a couple making out on the apartment’s fire escape.

We’ve been waiting for a campaign from Sabato De Sarno that really has a creative concept and execution worthy of Gucci, and with this campaign, he has given it to us. The short film beautifully unites a sense of aspirational fantasy and creative elevation with the more grounded sense of true-to-life glamor that has characterized his previous campaigns. Cleverly conceived and impressively executed, the campaign has us looking forward to the season of gifting – as well as what’s next for Gucci.