TBWA San Francisco wins $30m global Ray-Ban account

By by Sarah Woods, brandrepublic.com, Thursday, 25 May 2006 09:00AM

LONDON - Luxottica's Ray-Ban has awarded its estimated $30m (£16.1m) global creative account to TBWA\Chiat\Day in San Francisco.

Omnicom's TBWA\Chiat\Day in San Francisco is understood to have taken the business, following a pitch against agencies including McCann Erickson, Leo Burnett, The Kaplan Thaler Group, and Strawberry Frog.

McCann Erickson Italia had previously worked on the global advertising account, but is not considered the incumbent.

Previous campaigns for the brand include a television spot, along with print and poster work, which debuted in April 2005 and urged people to change their views and look at the world from a different perspective.

Shot in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the TV ad showed a sequence of models in everyday situations around the city.

A range of glasses and sunglasses were featured in the ad, including Ray-Bans' iconic Aviator model, which first appeared in 1936 and were worn by Tom Cruise in the film 'Top Gun'.

Ray-Ban glasses are made by Luxottica, which also holds the eyewear licence for brands including Prada, Byblos and Chanel.

Luxoticca recently handed its £40m pan-European media account to Carat out of incumbents MindShare and Mediaedge:cia.

Luxottica also owns the Persol, Revo and Vogue sunglassses range along with high street retailer Sunglasses Hut.  

TBWA has not yet confirmed the win, however the decision is expected to be announced later today.

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This article was first published on brandrepublic.com