Gucci Jackie 1961 Ad Campaign Review

Review of Gucci Jackie 1961 Ad Campaign by Photographer & Director Glen Luchford and Art Director Christopher Simmonds with talent Dakota Johnson

Gucci and Dakota Johnson offer a window into a day in the life of an effortless icon with a new campaign for the house’s Jackie 1961 bag. The campaign features photography and direction by Glen Luchford with art direction by Christopher Simmonds.

While Gucci’s campaigns typically feel dreamy and fantastical, this outing feels more grounded in everyday reality – at least, the everyday reality of a glamorous celebrity with an impressive Jackie 1961 collection.

Using opportunist camerawork that creates a paparazzi-like, almost voyeuristic feel, the film follows Johnson across everyday moments in her life in Los Angeles: grocery shopping, heading to the gym, picking up coffee, meeting friends for a night out. Seemingly unaware of the camera’s presence, the actor is nonetheless elegantly composed in every shot, always with a different version of the Jackie bag at her side that matches the current outfit and corresponding mood.

Gucci’s music selection is always on point, and the indie-rock bittersweetness of Dinosaur Jr.’s classic “Feel the Pain” feels like a grounded and apt choice for the somewhat more down-to-earth campaign.

Nonetheless, this is still Gucci we’re talking about after all, and the house’s legacy of elegance, drama, and the spirit of adventure is still present. These characteristics are especially embodied in the Jackie bag, which, first introduced in 1961, quickly became an iconic emblem of the jet-set lifestyle as seen on the arms of celebrated figures around the world. In the almost greedy devouring of the celebrity image of the film’s secretive and candid cinematography, we can feel both a critique and a celebration of cultural obsession with people who may not have asked for such fame. Meanwhile, in the photographs that accompany the film, the handbag’s unwavering power as a symbol of taste and status is front and center.

Shifting gears for an exploration of the perception of influential contemporary personae while maintaining the ethos of what is classically and timelessly Gucci, the campaign is a well-crafted ode to elegance in all its incarnations.