Castlello Cavalcanti

Outside of his beautifully melodramatic feature comedies, Wes Anderson has kept busy creating product commercials for companies for years. If you’re racking your brain to recall any spots besides his American Express spot (by far one of his best, as he also stars in it), that’s because many of them ran internationally. One of his best is Castello Cavalcanti, a short film for Prada set in 1955 Italy. While it’s “presented by Prada,” the short is every bit a Wes Anderson film. It's brilliant because it does what we believe marketing should do, serve as a subtle reminder—not an infomercial. We don’t necessarily want to know the 17 reasons to buy your product, just the world we’ll live in once we do.

The only sight of Prada is its period appropriate logo emblazoned on the back of Cavalcanti’s yellow racing jumpsuit, serving as his team sponsor. This is art as much as it is ad. Craftship as much as commerce. Prada keenly understands one thing: a spoonful of auteur artistry helps the advertising go down. We'll chase ours with a shot of the local hooch.