Louis Vuitton have chosen a bold and interesting path in combating their brand problem - a very serious Leibovitz-shot campaign featuring Russian politician Mikhail Gorbachev. The image is striking; classic; and far removed from the 'bling' campaigns which have dominated Louis Vuitton's advertising in recent years.
He may have ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party... but can he bring credibility back to the Louis Vuitton brand? I'd say it's definitely a start.
You can usually tell if a wallet/bag is fake from a mile away but once I had a friend who took his damier wallet which he bought from his friend to louis vuitton to get it authenticated. it took two tries to confirm it and on the second try they had about 4 people go to a seperate room to try to figure it out.
turns out it was real but they just stopped making the model so they had nothing to compare it to.