A fear of heights is one of our most natural and common instincts, found in animals and humans alike. In fact, well over 5% of the entire world’s population suffers from it, with twice as many women affected as men — and none affected as much as I am.
Seriously, I am terrified of heights. Even just a couple of rungs up a ladder, my eyesight gets wobbly, my peripheral vision gets squiggly and my heart starts racing. In truth, it’s probably pretty funny to watch, if you are someone else.
Well, today, I stumbled across an ad that is so beautifully and insanely shot, it absolutely made me gasp for breath as my tummy did acrophobic flip flops.
Producer/director Sébastien Montaz-Rosset met up with models and climbers, Antoine Moineville and Tancrède Melet, in the French Alps to produce this short film.
He shot them as they scaled to some of the world’s highest peaks and filmed them goofing around (stripping down to their Paul Smith skivvies) while completing death-defying stunts on top of the world.
On their web site, the British menswear brand explained:
Against the breathtaking backdrop of the French Alps, we watch as the two adrenaline junkies take on the mountains, bounding up the slopes before running across their lines and hand-standing on cliff tops. Throughout the film Antoine and Tancrède are dressed head-to-toe in Paul Smith; starting out in new season trousers and tops from the Paul Smith Jeans collection before stripping down to their Paul Smith Underwear.
The video has seen nearly a million views in two days; frankly, that’s lower than I’d expect. But, I imagine it will begin to find its audience online and gain traction as more bloggers and Twitterers pick it up. For me, it is a fantastic way to spotlight the entire line in that ever-so-effective aspirational advertising manner; what manly man wouldn’t want to be able to do what they are doing up there?
And, it’s really stunning to watch over and over again.
Take a look and let me know what you think.