The Raoul Factor

Madonna‘s 1999 Max Factor campaign was a huge successs with a widespread media blitz covering TV ads, instore displays and a massive poster campaign. Following in the footsteps of her heroines Jean Harlow and Bette Davis, our girl pocketed a reported $6.4m for the Max Factor Gold ads targeted at the older woman. Madonna, despite passing her 40th birthday, looked radiant as always, and in the adverts she wasn’t alone…

Who’s that boy? Madonna’s hunky co-star was Italian actor Raoul Bova. A former swimming champion from Rome and member of the S.S. Lazio Team, he tried out for the 1988 Italian Olympic squad for the games to be held in Seoul but didn’t quite make the cut. His sisters then convinced him to send some photos to a Roman talent agency and he then took to acting thereafter. His big break came as a swimming instructor in the romantic fantasy film ‘Piccolo Grande Amore‘. Thanks to his amazing good looks he was asked to star in the TV and press campaign with Madonna for her Max Factor campaign, showing an unshaven, ultra-masculine look to compliment her delicate, porcelain feminine look.

The TV adverts were directed by Truth Or Dare director Alek Keshshian and were soundtracked by the hit single ‘Ray Of Light‘. The longer advert, clocking in at 90 seconds included Raoul briefly at the start teaching Madonna to speak Italian (yes, appreciate the irony) after which she is dragged away to get her make-up done by her Evita make-up artist Sarah Monzani. A second, shorter one lasting 45 seconds allowed Madonna to finally ‘get her man’ and they have a big old snog on the set of the pretend movie they were making.

Raoul has starred in over 35 movies in his native Italy but he has also crossed over into Hollywood appearing in a couple of hit movies including the massive hit ‘Alien V Predator’, ‘Under The Tuscan Sun’ and opposite Sylvester Stallone in ‘Avenging Angel’. Recently voted ‘Italy’s sexiest man‘ in a 2006 poll, Raoul has also done a fair bit of modelling.
So impressed were they with his appearances in the Max Factor campaign that mega-brand GAP invited him to appear in a print campaign in 2003. What year did his Max Factor co-star also get snapped up for a lucrative GAP campaign? Yep – you guessed it, 2003. Coincidence? You decide.

Thanks to Jess for the inspiration for today’s FactMagazine scan by MadonnaTribe