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Joseph Schooling gets moody in first campaign for Hugo Boss

Hugo Boss has released its first ad starring Singaporean Olympian Joseph Schooling just months after appointing the swimmer as its brand ambassador.


Throughout the two-minute commercial, Singapore’s first Gold medallist is shown moodily brooding over his absent family and friends as he trains in Austin, Texas.

The video opens with Schooling immersed in water, when he says: “This isn’t where I belong”.

His voiceover continues: “You’ll miss waking up with the ones you love; You’ll miss your friends; You’ll miss home.

“But it’s the comforts you have to leave behind that take you back to the top, where you belong.”

According to the creative agency behind the work, Iris Singapore, the film aimed to show “how compensating on life’s little luxuries lead you to the top, and to becoming a Boss Man”.

“When we were briefed to create a film that was unlike any of Hugo’s global ‘Boss Man of Today’ films, the team took on the challenge to create something a little edgier and bolder – to show what a true Boss Man of Singapore could mean,” said the agency’s planning director James Honda-Pinder.

“Our approach came from the insight of a cultural shift in the category, where sacrifice is becoming the new language of luxury – that the man befits the suit, as much as the suit befits the man.”

Schooling famously left home at a young age to train in the US and became Singapore’s first ever Olympic gold after beating Michael Phelps in the 100m Butterfly at 2016’s Rio games. 

Since then, the 22-year-old has become hot brand property, signing commercial deals with DBS and Hugo Boss. Dentsu Sports Asia was recently appointed to manage his sponsorship endorsements. 

The current Hugo Boss campaign will run across digital, social and out-of-home until July. 

Iris Singapore’s ECD Ed Cheong added: “Having to spend most of his time away from the familiar comforts of home, Joseph has to forego many of life’s simpler luxuries. Which makes him the perfect ambassador to represent Hugo Boss as the new symbol of luxury.”

Credits

Agency: Iris Singapore

Client: Hugo Boss

Marketing Manager: Melanie Goh

Agency: Iris

Executive Creative Director: Ed Cheong

Deputy Creative Director: Shawn Foo

Planning Director: James Honda-Pinder

Regional CEO: Luke Nathans

Business Director: Natalie Hellon

Account Manager: Jodie Cheng-Bradshaw

Senior Producer: Jenni Stiebel

Executive Producer: Tasmin Vosloo

Senior Art Directors: Boo Wei Yi, Royston Ang

Senior Editor: Pamella Ang

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