Sunday, August 29, 2010

Nicki Kidman, Mallrat

Um... Perhaps our Brazilian friends could help us out with this one?



I saw this ad at Styleite and I have to echo their perplexed takeaway...
...then there’s the larger question at hand: Why on earth is Nicole Kidman doing a commercial for a mall in Brazil? And why does the commercial end with her walking down a red carpet in an ill-fitting gown?
I have never been to Brazil and this makes me sad. But if when I go I would like to travel like Nicole. Perhaps someone can roll a red carpet out for me at the airport?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well that commercial is a bit ridiculous but it's no different than Brad Pitt promoting drinks in Japan, George Clooney advertising coffee and Martini in Europe or Kate Winslet doing commercials for a credit card. Honestly, I'd be far more interested to read something about 'Rabbit Hole'. Have you heard anything about it yet? On the TIFF website, the director of TIFF (Cameron Bailey) says that Nicole's performance is 'remarkable' and 'one of the finest of the year'. I know the guy is probably biased (because he selected the film for his festival) but her performance is the only one he singles out (out of all his movie descriptions on the website)...

NATHANIEL R said...

Anon -- the reason i haven't discussed rabbit hole at tiff is because i'm waiting for something to happen. Festival descriptions are always kind to movies because they exist to sell tickets.

it can make choosing movies difficult because everything sounds great so when i go to festivals i usually have to choose based on actor/director/country/and genre feeling instead.

J said...

The advert is random, you have to wonder why she chose to do it. The ending of it is quite similar to her Chanel advert.

As for Rabbit Hole, Anonymous, it is also going to the Rome Film Festival in October :)

jeff said...

Nat,
maybe you don't know it but Kidman now is a producer, and not just an executive one, which means she has to find money to fund Rabbit Hole and The Danish Girl. If Rabbit Hole get a nomination for Best Picture, the nomination will be hers since she's one of the main producers of the movie. That's why she's doing all these adverts. She's a smart businesswoman. She was also in the promo for Australia's World Cup bid !

Victor S said...

This is totally nuts!!!
There's no way to explain why Nicole is doing this (but of course she is doing it for the money!!!)
As a brazilian reader can say 2 things:
1 - The company building the mall is F$%^^&% HUGE!!That's why they can afford an ad with Kidman!
They're specialized in high luxury malls - comparing Rio with NY its like theyre building the mall on Times Square - there are plans to build all kinds of things in Rio due the 2014 soccer world cup and the 2016 olympics. 2 - Kidman never set a foot in Brazil to shoot this - otherwise the media would go CRAZY!!! You have no idea how the brazilian media goes crazy when A-list star comes here (they even go crazy with c-listers!!).

Lucas Dantas said...

it's all chroma-key guys, like victor s. said above, there's no way nicole had stepped foot in brazil and the whole country wouldn't make a fuss, there's no way i wouldn't make a fuss! hahaha

and, not cos i'm brazilian, but brasil is hot right now! lol the company could pay nicole, so let the woman do it! no matter how irrealistic and dumb it may seem. nicole is gorgeous! rio de janeiro is PERFECTION! and they match! the goddes and the city, so whatever, i just think it's a beautiful ad.

James T said...

I have an explanation: It's not really Nicole. It's CGI! Computers have rendered actors useless.

God, I just realized that this might become a reality. Ewwww.

And, irani, ditto :p

Brazilian friend said...

It's all about money!
And it was shot in Nashville.

Thais Afonso said...

That ad is so much like the one Kiefer Sutherland did for some car here too(can't remember which). The creative team must have sucked, but then again, all the money must have gone to paying a fortune to Nicole for her to accept doing this.

James T said...

Brazilian friend - Don't say that! Nathaniel will think: "Wow! Was Altman involved, too??"

Gustavo said...

Two or three people laready mentioned it above, but yeah, Kidman did NOT come to Brazil to d any of that stuff, and I was as surprised as you are to see her face in those ads...

NATHANIEL R said...

Victor S -- what about triple Z listers like me? will people go nuts.

where's my limo and red carpet?

I love Nicole. I just thought this ad was strange. especially since the mall wasn't even built yet right?

plus i can't image celebrities going to malls. i can imagine them drinking soda or driving in cars and other things they advertise but shopping with the public? i can't picture it

Michael B. said...

Jeff,

You nailed it. Why else did you think she did that Hollywood Foreign Press thing early on in the summer? It's just her getting to chat them up about Rabbit Hole and campaigning without really campaigning. Genius move.

Victor S said...

Nathaniel
I cant promess people going nuts for you since people apparently only go nuts for the wrong reasons here in Brazil (like 500+ people waiting hours outside an hotel to see Paris Hilton)but I sure we can arrange a limo and a red carpet for you whenever you come to Brazil!

Anonymous said...

I love the dress Nicole is wearing and it is NOT ill fitting! Get your eyes checked! I also love the glamorous commercial.

Derreck said...

I'd do it.

To get paid money for doing NOTHING of substance?

Sign me up.

Janice said...

I tried watching this on another site and got maybe halfway through it. Nathaniel, you know Miss K is my favorite actress but this? *shudder* Reminds me a bit of the Chanel commercial but also of Baz's Australia, in that we're expected to gaze worshipfully at an empty wax mannikin who is disconnected and untouched by the world - her feet only briefly landing on the ground long enough to get into the limo. (I think there's more to the "real Nicole" than this, the few times she's said anything of substance in interviews, but this variation on the persona of "Nicole Kidman" is of no interest to me whatsoever.)

And really, what are we to get out of this? None of us are ever going to be "Nicole KIdman", none of us are going to be superstars and multimillionares; does any one think that shopping at a place that can afford to hire her for their ads will give their own lives some cachet?

And this sort of thing is also the reason that I think celebrities should NOT be allowed to do concerts or ads or any such for the environment (Darryl Hannah, Ed Begley Jr and Alicia Silverstone excepted), not when they explicitly support so much that is harmful to the environment (limos? Private jets? All thats missing is the Hummer.)