“There are journeys that turn into legends,” says the motto of Louis Vuitton’s newest Core Values campaign. And if you think of legends, it’s easy that the two main stars of the campaign come to mind: tennis players Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, who’ve been competing on arenas worldwide to earn the #1 spot on the ATP. Following the viral campaign starring eternal competitors Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the French Maison is back to pairing rivals-turned-friends for a striking and grandiose campaign shot by Annie Leibovitz at the Dolomites in Italy.
As the team at Louis Vuitton puts it, “this campaign illustrates how each personal journey can reach legendary heights when pursued with determination and a pioneering spirit.” Indeed, both Nadal and Federer have turned from promising young athletes to global sportsmanship idols after years of competing at the highest level. On one hand, Roger Federer shattered records with twenty Grand Slam titles, and on the other hand, Rafa Nadal has won over twenty times, fourteen of them at the French open. But now, out of the court, they leave that competition/rivalry apart to become colleagues and companions while hiking the Dolomites, standing at three thousand metres high. As Pietro Beccari, chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, puts it, the campaign “celebrates Louis Vuitton’s legacy of travel, of working with exceptional people, and of transmission.”
Speaking on the campaign, Federer shares: “It’s a unique opportunity to be working on this campaign with Rafa. How we could be such rivals and then at the end of our careers be beside each other doing this campaign has been very cool. And where we are here today, I think it also embodies everything: at the peak of the mountains. For us it is something meaningful and special.”
Sharing that same beautiful spirit, Rafa says: “I know how many important icons have been part of this campaign, so for me personally, being part of it is something that I am very proud of, especially sharing it with Roger – he has been my biggest rival and now a close friend today. In my career, I achieved more than I ever dreamed of, so at the end of the day, the legacy in terms of human beings is the most important value.”