With the upcoming Prime release of Cinderella, Mercedes-Benz and Amazon have teamed-up for a new campaign spearheaded with the message of female empowerment.

The film’s lead, singer and actress Camila Cabello is accompanied by director and writer Kay Cannon and producer Shannon McIntosh in an all new advertisement. The trio recite lines aimed to belittle women and reinforce negative, outdated stereotypes. They encourage the notion of breaking free from these stereotypes in favour of forging ones’ own path in life.

The ad concludes with Cabello saying: “It’s time for a new story, the one we write”, intending to drive home the campaign’s focal message

The film was initially in line for a Sony Pictures release in theatres but will instead receive a streaming release as a result of the pandemic. The campaign’s message for female empowerment will also include exclusive web content and a livestream. This message will be carried over to Cinderella, serving as a key theme for the film. Billy Porter will play Cinderella’s ‘Fab G’, a new take on the classic story’s fairy godmother.

Porter stated: “I want to change the world and encourage people to believe that they can be whoever and whatever they want to be, as long as they stay true to themselves. I’m excited to work with Mercedes-Benz on this campaign where the message of individuality is at the forefront as we empower aspiring girl bosses everywhere to embark on their own journey to the top.”

Porter worked with Mercedes-Benz in the designing of the new orange and gold ‘chariot’ which is a Mercedes-Maybach S560. On August 2, a video was released alongside the initial ad revealing the new modern-day-Cinderella-themed design. The model’s colour scheme will be a nod specifically to Fab G’s similarly coloured chariot.

While the film will not feature any Mercedes-Benz cars in it, Mercedes-Benz’ head of brand, Monique Harrison believes this to be a positive thing.

Harrison stated: “Because it gives us an opportunity to showcase various vehicles outside of the film — whether it’s Camila showcasing it from Cinderella’s perspective and the power that that has or Billy having a bit more fun with it and bringing forth this Fab G character in his Maybach. It’s a completely different take on vehicles and how we bring those in.

“And you’ll continue to see that as we continue the activation. A nice thing you can do is integrate a few cars in the film — which, who are we kidding, we’ll still do in the future — but this approach gives us a more well-rounded view of how to bring it all together.”

Adding to Harrison’s view, Ukonwa Ojo, CMO of Amazon Prime Video commented on the benefits of this collaboration.

Ojo stated: “That’s the value that we get from partnerships like this is, it gives us an opportunity to expand our audience.”