Given the status that Patek Philippe holds in the watch community, I can safely hold them to a very high standard – even in their marketing. Starting in August of 2010, Patek Philippe will roll out a new advertising campaign for its womens watches. Watch advertising is crucially important because they make important value propositions to consumers, as well as communicate essential branding information that relates to how people perceive brands and luxury watches over all. Given that, I find it hilarious when I see an ad that makes me think about having a three-way.
Which is exactly what Patek Philippe’s new slogan (as presented here) sounds like a pick up line for. Not just any three-way, but an inter-generational one. “Hey mom, daughter… don’t you agree that something truly precious holds its beauty forever? Can I interest you two in some Champagne?” Which in the ad is proceeded by the mother and daughter clutching hands while they giggle abruptly and exchange glances. Sure they’ll have the champagne.
To further me gently incestuous message, Patek Philippe even clarifies, “the focus of the visual is on the special intimacy that mothers and daughters share.” Damn straight it is. Is this a product of a sick mind or a reasonable interpretation of the ad. To be fair, most of the other “Something truly precious holds its beauty forever” ads aren’t as suggestive – but to me, this one is. Maybe that is what Patek is going for? A little flirty and naughty to sell luxury women’s watches. On the other hand, my mere suggestion of this might make Mr. Stern (CEO of Patek Philippe) flip out, forbid all marketing communication to aBlogtoRead.com and anything else that Ariel Adams writes for, and pull the ads. Which of course, would be freakin’ hilarious. Sadly, I don’t think Patek has that sense of humor. If you like, you can actually check out some more of the ads in this campaign here.
The campaign itself is the brainchild of the Leagas Delaney agency. Apparently a lot of research was conducted before the campaign was brought to fruition. Apparently enough people believe that Patek needed to be sexed up a bit. The above ad is really the jewel of their efforts in my opinion. The slogan itself needs a place in advertising history for impressive sounding statements that mean nothing at all. No doubt the campaign, including the other ads will resonate with consumers. Not in a seriously cerebral way, but it will serve its function with the female demographic. And now I can finally say… “you never actually own a Patek Philippe watch, you simply hold on to it until you can pass it along to the next generation after an awkward night of reminding them of how beautifully precious they are.”