A Rather Interesting Frontman

Nothing like putting a haggard, wrinkled rocker up front as the face of a new product.

For handbags, no less.

Then again, I am a Stones fan and find it rather amusing.

Keith Richards is the new face of Louis Vuitton, the French maker of luxury handbags and luggage.

The 64-year-old Rolling Stone appeared on a London billboard today and advertising placed in British newspapers. The campaign will feature in magazines throughout March, Antoine Arnault, Vuitton's head of communications and the 30-year-old son of Bernard Arnault, founder of brand owner LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, said in a Feb. 28 interview.

The younger Arnault said the ads are designed to promote Vuitton's heritage in luggage and win back older customers that lost interest as the label became more fashion-oriented. Earlier ads in the campaign featured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and actress Catherine Deneuve. Richards appears with a deeply wrinkled face holding a guitar in a hotel room with a custom- made Vuitton guitar case behind him on the bed.

Remarkably, I don't see a cigarette anywhere.