Il Cinema Italiano, qualcuno?

After getting my morning coffee today, I stopped by my local grocery store to pick up my magazine fix. I went with the usuals: Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, & Glamour (mainly because I love Amanda Seyfried, and although there is a yellow blowdryer on the cover, I think it sort of works in that this-doesn't-make-sense-but-don't-I-look-fabulous sort of way).
As I'm flipping through Elle, I noticed something a little strange within the first few ads of the magazine. Of course, there's the typical advertisers such as Armani and Gucci and Fendi which all have the normal ingredients of a fashion ad: young, beautiful people in glamorous clothing. However, Dolce & Gabbana took a different approach with their campaign strategy.


Now that D&G caught my attention, I just had to find out why this particular advertisement stood out to me.
It turns out, D&G's Spring and Summer campaign for 2012 was largely inspired by the 50's style Italian Cinema. This explains the older people, the strong family vibe, and the scenery behind the models in the ad that can only make you crave living in the lovely country of Italia.
First of all, let me just say I love the idea of this. I think their decision to choose Italian cinema is a great strategy and will attract people from many different age groups. It appeals to people my age of course, because who in their early 20's, who goes to a college, isn't thinking about traveling right now? Study abroad programs, anyone?
I think this was a very smart choice for D&G. In their ad, D&G features about eight people all from different age groups. Starting from a child, early teens, late teens, twenties, thirties, all the way up into the elderly age group.
I can only imagine D&G did this to advertise that their line is timeless and can go along with any age group. Their clientele mostly consists of the age group 25-45, so maybe this will encourage people out of that age range to shop there. I feel like this ad mostly appeals to the elderly because that's what seems to stand out the most about this campaign--since it is unusual to see older people in high-fashion ads.
Also, I think they're trying to pull the family angle, because in this ad they are all touching each other gently, such as a hand on the shoulder or head, resembling that they are close and comfortable with each other. Plus, you can't think "Italian Cinema" without thinking of the big Italian family that comes along with that. What a mighty good looking and well dressed family I might add, I wish my family portraits looked like this! In any case, I think it's a wonderful strategy, and if anything it's making D&G stand out and I'm sure people are already talking about this. So at least D&G is putting themselves out there.
Here are some more photos from the campaign:


That said, I think I'm going to check dolcegabbana myself and find that flower-print jacket and skirt the woman with the yellow earrings is wearing. It kind of just shines out of the whole ad, don't you think?