Le Lion (La Lionne)
Perrier1990
Le Lion (La Lionne) is a 1990 television commercial for Perrier, created by Ogilvy & Mather Paris.
The line
De l'eau, de l'air: la vie
Why it works
A woman and a lion meet nose to nose on an African hilltop, both desperate for the same bottle of Perrier, and she wins it with a cry so primal it cows the big cat. Jean-Paul Goude, who pitched the idea poolside to Ogilvy Paris's creative director, staged it as Beauty and the Beast in reverse; the film runs to Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You" and signs off "De l'eau, de l'air: la vie." Lions barely bare their fangs when they roar, so the crew waited a whole day for this one to yawn. It is studied as a masterclass in selling a mineral water through myth rather than claims, compressing thirst, wildness and seduction into one image. The 1990 film won the Grand Prix Stratégies and the Cannes Grand Prix in 1991; in 2014 Culture Pub still called it the last Cannes Grand Prix won by France. In 2018 Ogilvy remade it in miniature, a little girl facing a lion cub, for Perrier Fines Bulles.
Techniques
- Storytelling A woman and a lion face off over one bottle on an African hilltop, a reversed Beauty and the Beast that she wins with a primal cry.
- Pathos Sells the water through thirst, wildness and seduction rather than claims, making desire for the bottle almost animal.
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