Bombay Sapphire brings in Baz Luhrmann as creative director on new campaign

“There is creativity everywhere,” Natasha Curtin, the brand’s global vice-president, tells The Drum. “You just need to reframe how you look at the world.”

The campaign film has been made by award-winning director Juan Cabral, who took to the streets of Buenos Aires with creative agency AMV BBDO to capture a montage of intriguing clips set to the soundtrack of Arabesque by French composer Claude Debussy.

Inspiration came from Jorge Luis Borges’s short story The Aleph, while creative director duties were taken up by none other than multi-award-winning writer, director and producer Baz Luhrmann.

“We’ve encouraged people to go out into the world, see something that creatively inspires them and make something,” says Curtin. “It has been really exciting for us to partner with Baz Luhrmann on this: someone who shares this in his DNA, shares this in his mission and in his vision that everyone can be creative”

Luhrmann has been candid throughout the project about how his life experience has shaped his own creative process, with the Moulin Rouge director saying: “I truly believe that everyone is inherently creative, no matter who you are, where you come from or what you do.”

He continues: “You don’t have to be labeled an artist to be considered a creative. If you just give yourself permission to see the world as a gallery of inspiration and reframe how you think about things, you’ll unlock a part of yourself you didn’t know existed.”

It was this belief, says Curtin, that made the filmmaker so “inspirational to collaborate with” and a perfect fit for Bombay Sapphire. “He has helped us form this mission,” she says, adding that Luhrmann will also be helping to “select and curate the creativity that we see come back in response to the campaign”.

AMV BBDO’​s creatives Jack Smedley and George Hackforth-Jones worked on the campaign and say the Academy Award winner brought a unique perspective to the partnership, informed by decades of working in the creative industries. More than just a director, they say, he is a polymath with experience in music, theater, fashion and photography, as well as being a passionate believer that anyone can truly be creative if they learn to open their eyes to the world around them.

They add that, despite being a world-renowned creative, Luhrmann truly believes in the democratization of the creative process, which is really at the core of the whole campaign.

For Curtin, it was fascinating to see just how passionate the filmmaker is about supporting creatives around the world and to “hear about his small-town upbringing in Australia where he found creative inspiration in the everyday and turned it into this impressive amount of work that he’s done to date.”

It’s a sentiment that runs through the entire campaign, with partnerships between global arts organizations in London and New York to help inspire the masses – something Lurhmann instigated and has been an “integral“ part of, says AMV BBDO strategy partner Suzanne Barker.

“Creativity is all around us and once you learn to see it, the whole world becomes a gallery. We believe strongly that this is a universal truth – no matter where you are in the world, this is a globally relevant thought.”

Over the next few months, the multi-million-dollar global campaign will be amplified across TV, social and cinema, as well as out-of-home activations, culminating on World Creativity Day next April with a showcase of submissions.

“Creativity is in our DNA,” concludes Curtin. “We’re just beginning of our journey on this campaign and are excited to see what we receive by putting this mission and this inspiration out into the world.”

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