Beyoncé and Jay-Z are Tiffany & Co's latest ambassadors
When it comes to celebrity power couples, few are as iconic or long-lasting as the Carters — better known by their respective mononyms Beyoncé and Jay-Z. So it's no surprise that Tiffany & Co. have tapped on the duo for 'About Love', one of their biggest campaigns yet — and the first commercial campaign that the musicians have appeared in as a couple.
That's not the only first that the collaboration marks. In the campaign's initial images, Beyoncé is pictured wearing the iconic Tiffany Diamond — all 128.54 carats of it — the first time the gemstone has ever been worn in a campaign. The legendary Bird on a Rock brooch also makes an appearance, now reconstructed as a pair of unique cufflinks for Jay-Z.
But 'About Love' is more than a maudlin celebration of the emotion. The campaign also explores connection and vulnerability, qualities that the brand says the Carters embody.
“We at Tiffany stand for many things, love being at the forefront," said Alexandre Arnault, Tiffany's executive vice president of product and communication. "And [the Carters] embody modern love, in my opinion.”
As for what 'modern love' meant, Arnault alluded to it in a separate interview, mentioning Beyoncé and Jay-Z's well-known "ups and downs", the two decades the couple have stayed married in spite of it all, and their prolific careers as individuals.
The upcoming campaign film was shot by Ghanian-Dutch director Emmanuel Adjei, who also worked with Beyoncé on Black Is King, the singer's 2020 musical film, with some contributions from Jay-Z himself: At one point, Beyoncé serenades her husband with a cover of Moon River, and Jay-Z records it all with a Super 8 camera.
An artwork by the Brooklyn-born Jean-Michel Basquiat —an artist widely regarded as one of the most influential of the 20th century — also makes an appearance in the film, a sign of Tiffany's long-standing tradition of working with New York creatives. Equals Pi was created by the artist in 1982, and has been kept in a private collection until now.
As part of Tiffany's partnership with Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the house has also pledged US$2 million towards scholarships and internship programmes for Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States.
