LV Wins More $

Edited by Rebecca Alexander

Louis Vuitton won yet another victory yesterday in its never-ending trademark-protection crusade, this time against Sony BMG. In a legal dispute just slightly more glamorous than LVMH’s recent ones with eBay, Sony BMG has agreed to pay Louis Vuitton 100,000 euros, or $155,830. Louis Vuitton got upset with the music giant because they used its Toile Monogram and Multicolore trademarks in music videos and on CDs by Britney Spears, Ruben Studdard, and Da Brat.

For example, in her “Do Something’” video, Britney appears driving through the clouds with her sexy girl entourage* in a pink hummer with a pink dashboard embossed with Louis Vuitton’s signature pattern (which flashes on the screen for literally less than a second).What makes the LVMH legal team seem even more spectacular is they’ve already won $240,000 in the Spears and Da Brat cases over the last five years. These guys are seriously cracking down on copywriting, good for them!!!

Thanks NY Mag for the info.

Keith Shills for Louis

Edited by lins

And in more creative news from the world of LVMH, I just saw the Louis Vuitton creative with Keith Richards (this is delayed I know, but I’ve been catching up on my magazine reading). And, sweet Jesus, that man looks terrible—an LV suitcase would probably look better if it had accompanied him on all his world tours (though he, um, doesn’t seem the LV type, which makes the company’s choice to use him as spokesmodel rather odd). Either way, let this be a lesson to all you vain kids out there—just say no to drugs (or you’ll look like Uncle Keith).

Coppola Family Affair for New LV Ads

Edited by Lauren Garroni

Francis and Sofia kicking it in Napa for the new “Life-is-great-because-we’re-rich-and-have-LV-luggage” Louis Vuitton Ads

Over the last couple of seasons Louis Vuitton has taken an interesting direction with their ad campaigns…by putting interesting public figures in their ads. Instead of putting the hottest celeb of the moment like a Shia Labeouf or a Eva Longoria, they decided to feature people like Andre Agassi and Catherine Deneuve.

Antoine Arnaud, son of Bernard Arnaud, chief executive of LVMH said of the new direction: “We needed something special to remind people about the romance of travel. People said we were crazy to even contemplate Gorbachev or Clinton, but eventually Gorbachev said if we could put him in with the Berlin Wall we were on…”

Well get ready for the next set of ads with none other than Oscar-winning father-daughter Francis Ford and Sofia Coppola. This isn’t the first time Sofia has been featured in an ad for her buddy Marc Jacobs. You can still find her as the face of Marc Jacobs orginal fragence in magazines.

The normally camera-shy and super ‘indie’ Coppola explained to the Times why she would do something so corporate: “I liked the ad Annie shot with Keith Richards. It was flattering to be asked. Plus I’ve known Marc Jacobs since I was 18. We had mutual friends and started hanging out together. I remember asking my mom to take me to see Perry Ellis when he was designing there. I still have a box of clothes from that grunge collection somewhere. It’s great to work with Annie – she did a good portfolio on the set of Marie Antoinette. She just selects one picture and then shows it to you. But I think that’s good. My dad and I were both like, yeah, whatever you want, this is your shoot. On your own set you want it exactly your own way, but we can get with someone else’s vision too.”

[The Times, I Heart Sofia]