From time to time, you get wind of such and such an American celebrity starring in some ad campaign in a faraway land and getting paid big bucks for doing so. All the time, the majority of fans stateside sleep soundly at night without a clue. This time around, Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick, aka Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass, agreed to sit (lounge?) for ads for some company called ASK, which were subsequently run in NYLON Korea.
Let's take a closer look at the above photo:
I see a horseback rider, but Ralph Lauren -- big pony polos and all -- would never issue something with that much embroidered text across the front. The rider is knighted and the horse is on the verge of jumping, but Burberry's Christopher Bailey most likely would balk at this blatant and shameless (and as established per Ralph Lauren, tasteless) attempt at mimicry. I'm almost curious to want to know whether the knight's flag says the word "prorsum" on it...almost...
Now, back to Leighton and Ed, somehow, I feel their characters would never be caught out in daylight in frocks like these....
...which leads me to wonder, how much are they being paid to water down their carefully crafted and stylistically maven personnas as Chuck and Blair?
It's one thing to branch out and do an ad that shows you off in an altogether different (but equally appealing) light -- think Emma Watson in the current Burberry ads. It's another to be portrayed in what can only be labeled as a misadventure in prep courtesy of Wal-Mart.
On the flipside, I do think it's cute the two are portrayed as is per the ending of Season 2...here's to anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new season premiere.
Image taken from NYLON magazine.
