Versace "Eros Energy" Fall 2024 Ad Campaign

Review of Versace “Eros Energy” Fall 2024 Ad Campaign by Creative Directors and Photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott with model Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum is the new embodiment of the iconic Versace man: the actor fronts the house’s latest campaign for its new Eros Energy fragrance. The campaign was shot and directed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

If you were watching cable television in 2012, then the Versace Eros ad starring Brian Shimansky – and also directed by Mert & Marcus – is probably seared into your memory. This new campaign for the latest member of the Eros family picks right up where that one left off, including the motif of firing Cupid’s arrow, which shatters the bottle in the iconic final shot.

While the motifs are similar, some differences stand out as well. Most notable, of course, is the celebrity casting, which is definitely a characteristic trend of our current fragrance moment. It’s hard to find a fragrance campaign that doesn’t center around a celebrity brand ambassador. With his certified hunk status, however, Channing Tatum is up for the job, and the film puts a clever twist on the original with the Versace man making an epic chase to catch the symbolic arrow that he himself fired.

Cleverly continuing the hypergraphic narrative of masculine power that characterized the original iconic ad, this new campaign feels nicely balanced as both a nod backwards and a contemporary evolution.