WRITER: Karim Mounib PHOTOGRAPHER: Diego Indraccolo & Awesome Media

Is it a fashion shoot? Is it a car commercial? The answer is both. The new campaign by Cadillac Middle East demonstrates a different personality for a luxury brand that’s proud and confident in the fact it’s made in the USA.

Cadillac is a brand in the midst of sweeping changes. Not only has it distanced itself from General Motors, given that it now reports its financials independently of its parent company, it has also dissociated itself from Detroit. That’s right, the company’s marketing and sales operations are now headquartered in swanky new offices smack bang in the heart of New York’s hippest neighbourhood – Soho.

With this recalibrated positioning comes a fresh push for market share and to that end they have a new global marketing tagline – Dare Greatly – which must be exactly what Cadillac Middle East had in mind when they dreamt up a rather unconventional new regional campaign.

As you can see here in these exclusive behind-the-scenes shots, the Cadillac campaign is centred around a fashion shoot but with a raging 2016 ATS-V drifting in and out of the frame in a haze of smoke and burning rubber.

The director Luigi Pane says he was drawn to the project because it was unlike anything he had seen before. “When I saw the brief I was stunned by the idea,” says Pane, “It’s a mix between car action shooting and a fashion film. I’ve done both, but never together, it was a great challenge and very fun to work on.”

The idea of making a model (in this case a trio of Middle Eastern bloggers), the focal point is already unorthodox for a car ad but more so for this brand, which has traditionally kept things as simple as possible with a single stationary automotive studio shot coupled with a tagline like: “Cady, Rhymes with Daddy”. But the brand feels there are plenty of synergies to draw upon with the fashion world, particularly in terms of self-expression and individuality.

But why a fashion photo shoot in a car going sideways? “ Why not?” says Nadim Ghrayeb, Cadillac Middle East’s brand manager. “The brand has always done things differently, be it the bold design of our cars or their performance, our heritage demands that we push the boundaries and inspire through everything we do.”

Now, we’re aware of the fact that Cadillac has been producing some fine cars over the last decade or so, and they’ve certainly won the respect of the international motoring press but the fact that this 100-plus-year-old brand has a newfound swagger might just mean it’s finally going to take a bite out of the Germans’ stronghold in the luxury market. And to that we say it’s about time.