Formula 1's Bernie Ecclestone Attack Turned Humorous Hublot Ad

By James Rothaar Dec. 13th, 2010

Luxury Watches: While there is nothing funny about a mugging or someone being injured by an attacker, a bad situation that really happened has been turned into an ad campaign for Hublot Geneve that is simply too rich with dark humor to resist sharing.

The image of the battered man with a black eye is an untouched photo of an actual victim who was robbed and beaten in late November. As it turned out, his Hublot wristwatch also was stolen during the robbery.

The picture was taken by the man's wife on the same day as the incident. The victim, Mr. Bernie Ecclestone, sent that same picture along with a note to Mr. Jean-Claude Biver, Hublot's CEO, which read: "See what people will do for a Hublot," along with his name, the date, and an informal signature.

The victim and the CEO agreed to transform the grievous situation into a tongue-in-cheek (more like a fist-in-eye) advertisement for the F1 King Power, the official watch of Formula 1, which was to appear only once in the Financial Times and the International Herald Tribune for a two-day period. Now, it appears that the reality based one-off advertisement will become a campaign.

In a statement, company officials stated that it is was to be a strictly one-off shot. However, it apparently was too good not to use more than one time. No official announcement on specific plans for the campaign were announced at this time.

To see full ad to go the official site of Hublot Geneve: hubolt.com

James Rothaar

James has written content for Justluxe.com and other leading online luxury lifestyle magazines. Rothaar previously served as the senior-tenured staff writer for JustLuxe, having worked with the digital magazine since 2005. He resides in Jacksonville, Florida, and works as an independent marketing consultant and freelance writer and copywriter. He is the co-owner of Wild Owl Digital, a boutique mar...(Read More)