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Bentley Employs Jean Reno to Tell Us about Being Extraordinary

It's hard to build an image of exquisite luxury, and just as hard to maintain it afterwards. There are a lot of things to consider and a lot of things that can go wrong.
Bentley Bentayga ad 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
When you're one of these luxury brands, making a commercial for a new product becomes a quest for finding the best way to convey that sense of exclusivity without neglecting the product itself.

For the new Bentayga SUV, Bentley has turned to French actor Jean Reno. If you're an American movie fan, you might remember him from titles such as "Leon" - where he played a professional hitman - or "Ronin". If you're a French film aficionado, you'll have a much longer list to choose from.

However, we're not here to discuss mr. Reno's movie career, but the Bentley Bentayga commercial you'll see below and his presence in it. We're saying "Bentayga commercial" even though the SUV's name isn't pronounced once during Reno's monolog, and that's actually a pretty clever trick.

The main focus of the whole ad is around the word "extraordinary". Being extraordinary is obviously something Bentley customers strive to achieve, otherwise they would have bought an Audi and be done with it. But being extraordinary isn't easy and it's not something you can buy with money - or rather you couldn't, not until the Bentley Bentayga came along.

The ad isn't in any way a bad one, but we feel the choice of having Jean Reno as the main (human) character might not have been the best one. Maybe his French accent was considered to be a sign of extraordinariness, but his roles so far have not built that image of a classy man so many other actors have.

Besides, Bentley is a British brand, so a British actor would have made a lot more sense. And who chose the clothing? He is out in the wilderness, granted, but it looks like he was enjoying his coffee on a chilly Sunday morning when somebody from Bentley grabbed him and told him there was no time, he had to film the ad that very instant.

We're perfectly aware the car will sell galore with or without Jean Reno in this commercial. In fact, the whole 2016 production is booked in advance, so things are looking bright for Bentley. As for us, we suddenly feel the urge to watch "Leon" once again.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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