It’s one of Hollywood’s worst kept secrets that A (and B) -list celebrities in search of another payday could always sneak off to Japan or Europe to shill products they wouldn’t be seen dead endorsing in America. Arnie’s enthusiastic efforts on behalf of the energy drink, "Vfuyy" and Sly’s insatiable appetite for Ito Ham are internet memes well past their respective sell by dates but they are but two examples in a roll call of unlikely but highly lucrative commercial partnerships.
Of course it is not just actors and celebrities that have been cashing in. Many well-known directors have a lucrative sideline directing commercials and Alan Parker (Cinzano), Ridley Scott (Apple), Michael Bay (Victoria’s Secret) and Tony Kaye (British Airways) all cut their teeth in the advertising industry, indeed Ridley and Tony Scott founded the advertising production company RSA Films in 1967 and its Top Dog division specializes in recruiting name directors.
Nor is it just “mainstream” film makers who are in on the action, Woody Allen (Telecom Italia), Wes Anderson (American Express), Kenneth Anger (Missoni), Darren Aronofsky (Revlon), Harmony Korinne (Liberty Mutual) and Errol Morris (Miller High Life) are just a few of the somewhat more unlikely directors to have dabbled in advertising. In this light David Lynch’s involvement with commercials seems far less surprising although the extent of his client list, which includes Armani, JC Decaux, Playstation2, Clear Blue Easy, the SciFi Channel, Adidas, Barilla, Alka Seltzer, Georgia Coffee, Dior and Nissan, perhaps is.
What then are we to make of Lynch’s commercials? His advertising career kicked off two years after Blue Velvet in 1988 with a series of films for Calvin Klein’s Obsession. The ads were shot by Philippe Dixon and Frederick Elmes but the enigmatic aura with which the brand liked to surround itself had been established from the outset in 1985, when the perfume was launched with a series of commercials shot by Bruce Weber and Richard Avedon.
Following the scent of easy money, Lynch went on to direct perfume ads for Yves St Laurent (Opium), Armani (Gio), Karl Lagerfeld (Sun Moon Stars), Jill Sanders (Instinct of Life) and Gucci. Despite the occasional subversive moment the overwhelming impression is one of expensively photographed clichés with a frisson of his signature gothic thrown in for good measure.
A famous caffeine addict, Lynch’s Japanese TV spots for Georgia Coffee in 1993 provided Kyle MacLachlan the opportunity to reprise his role as Agent Cooper and consume many a “damn fine cup of coffee” in a lazy parody of Twin Peaks, which saw many of the original cast reunited. The client was unimpressed and of a projected series of eight commercials only four were made.
Of greater interest is the director’s work for Parisienne Cigarettes made for Swiss cinemas in 1999. Parisienne had previously commissioned films from Robert Altman, Emir Kusturica, the Coen Brothers and Jean-Luc Godard. Lynch’s film is genuinely disquieting.
In 2010 Lynch directed Lady Blue Shanghai for Dior. This 16 minute short film was one of a series starring Marion Cotillard and was preceded by Lady Noire, directed by Olivier Dahane and Lady Rouge, directed by Jonas Akerlund. A strange encounter with a haunted handbag in a Shanghai hotel room allows the director to indulge himself in an extended bout of romantic déjà vu.
Whilst Lady Blue Shanghai is a more engaging experience than many of the directors other commercials it is hard to avoid the sense of a director only too willing to sacrifice narrative coherence for atmosphere and endlessly recycle vague pseudo-existential imagery in what can only be described as self-parody. Then again perhaps that is what he was getting paid for.