The Louis Vuitton campaign with Messi and Ronaldo: a legendary snapshot

« There are no eternal friends, nor eternal enemies, but there are eternal interests. »

Is this the most legendary photo in the luxury industry? Undoubtedly, this image will go down in history. 12 Ballon d’Or winners are featured in this already iconic photo.

Louis Vuitton has achieved the feat of creating the most liked photo on Instagram. The three accounts together have over 70 million likes as of November 22nd:

CR7: 38 million Messi: 29.2 million Louis Vuitton: 5.6 million

Second feat of Louis Vuitton, bringing together two monuments of world football who are also the two most followed personalities on Instagram:

Cristiano Ronaldo: 501 million followers Messi: 377 million followers

A third feat?

The two giants of world football are united for the first time by a sponsor.

Negotiations that lasted several months and a snapshot that became mythical in just a few days. In front of the lens of the talented photographer Annie Leibovitz, we can admire Messi and Ronaldo in the middle of a chess game on two trunks (similar to the trophy trunks that contain the World Cup trophy) of the French trunk maker Louis Vuitton.

In this snapshot, nothing is left to chance, not even the chess pieces. This staging is the identical reproduction of a game between two giants of the discipline: Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. A game that took place in 2017 and ended in a … draw.

In this game, reproduced identically, Ronaldo with the white pieces plays the move of the Norwegian Carlsen (probably one of the best players of all time). Facing him, the American Nakamura, played by Messi, who replies with the black pieces. Nakamura is the youngest player in his country to have achieved at only 15 years the status of Grandmaster.

We can understand the choice of the LVMH group not to offend two monuments of the round ball. The French brand places the two legends on an equal footing, for the greatest pleasure of the unconditional fans of the players … and of Louis Vuitton. Can you imagine for a single second a photo where one of the two stars would lose? Impossible.

Moreover, for the little story, the two men did not take their half of the snapshot at the same time.

See you in a few weeks with « Icône », our podcast on luxury that becomes an icon, on December 17th.