Watch Tiffany’s controversial ad ‘About Love,’ starring Jay-Z and Beyoncé
A few weeks ago, Tiffany & Co. dove headfirst into the news cycle by releasing the first images of a new ad campaign starring Jay-Z and Beyoncé, called “About Love.” Of course, anything featuring these icons of pop cultural royalty would attract attention, but piling onto that was the use of a little-seen 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat called Equals Pi. Not only that, but the painting appears to feature Tiffany’s signature shade of blue. Not only that, but Beyonce was wearing the 128.54 carat Tiffany Diamond, becoming the first Black woman to wear the iconic jewel discovered in South Africa in 1877. Not only that, but she was then accused of wearing a blood diamond.
Now the brand has launched both a 60-second and 90-second version of a new commercial for the campaign, featuring a stylish peek into the fashion and lifestyle of one of the world’s most famous couples. The soundtrack is Beyoncé’s cover of “Moon River,” a song made famous by the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The Basquiat makes a cameo at about the 40-second mark.
This is the second headline-grabbing ad campaign for Tiffany’s in as little as two months, all part of efforts by the company’s new owner, LVMH, to inject some youthful energy into the century-old brand. In July, the brand sparked some backlash for a campaign called “Not Your Mother’s Tiffany,” featuring young models looking less-than glamorous and a warmed-over Oldsmobile tagline. It’s not the first time the brand has used a “Moon River” cover and some young faces to hype the brand, as it did when it enlisted Elle Fanning and A$AP Ferg in 2018.
If brands and marketers exist at the mercy of the attention economy, whatever you think of this as a piece of advertising, the sheer amount of news coverage it has attracted is staggering. For now, we’ll have to wait and see if it leads to selling more charm bracelets.
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