A leap into a new chapter
On 5 February 2014 Lacoste introduced "Life is a beautiful sport", a global brand platform developed with BETC Paris that reset the Maison's positioning after almost a decade of perceived ageing in its core markets.1, 2 The launch film, titled "The Big Leap", told the story of a first kiss, in which a young man overcomes his fears to show a woman he loves her, framed as a metaphorical plunge into the unknown rather than as a stunt.1 The platform launched in France first, with rolling international deployment through the spring and summer of 2014, and replaced the previous "Unconventional Chic" signature that had carried the brand since December 2010.1, 2, 3, 4
The strategic context for the relaunch was direct. By the early 2010s Lacoste had occupied a position between sportswear and fashion that had begun to feel ambiguous to consumers, and brand-tracking data for the Maison showed weakening scores on modernity, creativity and aspiration.2 BETC Paris, under the strategic direction of Bertille Toledano, argued that Lacoste needed to return to its founding values rather than pursue a new fashion register, and the agency framed the relaunch as a recovery of the original Lacoste posture rather than as a reinvention.1, 2 Tenacity, freedom of movement, elegance and optimism were placed at the centre of the renewed brand book, and "Life is a beautiful sport" was written to carry all four ideas in one line.2
The Big Leap and the cinematic register
The launch film was directed by Seb Edwards and produced through Academy Films.1 Its central image was a young man seated opposite a woman in a cafe who imagines himself on top of a tall building, jumping and free-falling alone until he kisses her and she joins him in the fall. The leap functioned as a metaphor for a romantic decision, with editorial cues, an empty street below, a glance toward a destination, that pointed the viewer to read the jump as a gesture of intent rather than as athletic display.1, 2 The soundtrack was Flume's remix of "You & Me" by Disclosure featuring Eliza Doolittle.1, 2
The cinematography was deliberately classical. Wide architectural shots framed the city as a stage, and close-ups held the man's face in moments of decision. The visual register placed Lacoste alongside European cinema rather than alongside the American action codes of competing sportswear advertising. That decision was strategic. BETC's diagnosis was that Lacoste's authentic territory sat between sport and culture, and the camera language was tuned to read accordingly.
From "Unconventional Chic" to a new credo
The relaunch broke cleanly with the 2010 to 2013 "Unconventional Chic" platform that BETC had also developed.2, 4, 5 That earlier work had aimed to reposition Lacoste as a fashion brand with a streetwear edge, and it had produced striking imagery while leaving the Maison's underlying values unsettled. By 2013 the brand's leadership concluded that the Lacoste consumer wanted a coherent commitment to the Maison's heritage rather than a fashion-first reading of the crocodile. The 2014 platform translated that conclusion into language and imagery, and the new line ran across film, print and digital with a single visual signature that referenced the leap as a recurring graphic motif.1
The product story sat alongside the campaign. Lacoste's Spring/Summer 2014 collection, then under creative director Felipe Oliveira Baptista, used the brand's archive as a starting point and reintroduced classic codes such as the rugby polo, the slim chino and the white tennis dress in updated cuts.5 The campaign therefore did not stand alone. The film, the print stills, the in-store communication and the runway collection were calibrated against each other, and the line "Life is a beautiful sport" served as the editorial signature that joined the four streams.
Commercial outcomes and a long-running framework
The platform was commercially successful and operationally efficient. In France, the 2014 campaign was associated with an 11 per cent increase in sales during the brand's advertising windows compared with the same periods in 2013, and the year overall closed with an 8 per cent volume progression.2 Brand-tracking data showed gains of 15 points on "makes me dream", 13 points on "creative and innovative" and 11 points on "contemporary and modern" against the comparable French study in 2013.2 The platform also collected a Grand Prix Effie in 2015, the most prestigious effectiveness recognition in French advertising at the time.2
"Life is a beautiful sport" continued to anchor Lacoste's communication through the second half of the 2010s, with successive films, sub-platforms and product launches drawing on the same tone.6 The Save Our Species partnership with the IUCN in 2018, in which the crocodile temporarily gave way to ten endangered species across a limited polo collection, was framed under the broader umbrella of the 2014 work.6, 7 The line eventually receded in favour of more product-driven communication in the early 2020s, before BETC Paris and Lacoste returned to it in April 2026 with a renewed global film that follows a young woman through Paris to Roland-Garros, where the house ambassador Novak Djokovic awaits her.2, 8 Read across more than a decade, the 2014 launch operated less as a single campaign than as a strategic framework that successive Lacoste leaderships continued to adopt.
Source: BETC Paris
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. Fubiz, "Lacoste - Life Is A Beautiful Sport", unsigned, 5 February 2014, and BroadwayWorld, Jennifer Diamond, "VIDEO: Lacoste Debuts LIFE IS A BEAUTIFUL SPORT", 10 February 2014, both off whitelist and listed in the article's sources, with LBBOnline, "Lacoste 'Life Is A Beautiful Sport'", unsigned, 10 February 2014, off whitelist and added for corroboration only: Fubiz for the new Lacoste film "Life is a beautiful sport" being out on 5 February 2014, produced by Wanda, directed by Seb Edwards, with BETC as the creative agency; BroadwayWorld for the campaign as reinstating the brand's founding principles, for the film directed by Seb Edwards, for the visuals by the photographer Jacob Sutton showing men and women moving gracefully above urban landscapes, and for the debut in France during the Winter Olympics before a global rollout from March 2014; LBBOnline for the line as a promise that re-establishes the brand's founding values, for "The Big Leap" as Lacoste's first advertising film, created by BETC Paris, directed by Seb Edwards and produced through Wanda, for the film as the story of a first kiss and of a man overcoming his fears to show a woman he loves her, a metaphorical plunge into the unknown, for its French premiere on 7 February during the Winter Olympics and its global run from March 2014 in 30 and 60 second versions for TV and cinema alongside press visuals, an outdoor campaign and a digital activation, and for the credits, which list Bertille Toledano under agency management and the music as Disclosure, "You & Me" featuring Eliza Doolittle, in the Flume remix. Academy Films, "Lacoste 'The Big Leap'", an undated portfolio page consulted on 25 September 2026, off whitelist and used for corroboration only, lists the film under Seb Edwards without further credits; every published credit list names Wanda as the production company. None of these pages describes a run across rooftops or a leap from one roof to another; LBBOnline calls the jump a metaphorical plunge into the unknown, the wording the body now uses. https://www.fubiz.net/en/2014/02/05/lacoste-life-is-a-beautiful-sport-2/ https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/VIDEO-Lacoste-Debuts-LIFE-IS-A-BEAUTIFUL-SPORT-20140210 https://lbbonline.com/news/lacoste-life-is-a-beautiful-sport https://www.academyfilms.com/portfolio/lacoste-the-big-plunge
2. Hugues L. Rey, "Life is a Beautiful Sport : douze ans plus tard, Lacoste rejoue le match gagnant", I'M A BRIDGE, 27 April 2026, off whitelist and listed in the article's sources, for the 2014 diagnosis of a Lacoste "pas tout à fait marque de mode, pas tout à fait sportswear, et perçue comme vieillissante", suffering "d'un déficit de modernité"; for BETC Paris acting "sous l'impulsion de Bertille Toledano" and making "une rupture nette avec la signature précédente « Unconventional Chic »"; for the new credo placing Lacoste back in its founding values, "ténacité, liberté de mouvement, élégance et optimisme"; for "The Big Leap" as "une métaphore universelle autour de l'élan amoureux et du saut dans l'inconnu"; for the 2014 soundtrack, "le remix de « You & Me » par Flume"; for the French results, "une hausse du chiffre d'affaires de +11% lors des prises de parole de la marque par rapport aux mêmes périodes de 2013, ainsi que d'une progression de +8% en volume sur l'année", and the image gains on "me fait rêver" (+15 points), "créative et innovante" (+13 points) and "contemporaine et moderne" (+11 points); for the Grand Prix Effie 2015; and for the return of the line on 27 April 2026 with a film that follows a young woman through Paris to Roland-Garros, where the ambassador Novak Djokovic awaits her. The post names no reference study for the image gains, cites no brand tracking from before 2014, and does not rank the Effie among French awards. https://huguesrey.wordpress.com/2026/04/27/life-is-a-beautiful-sport-douze-ans-plus-tard-lacoste-rejoue-le-match-gagnant/
3. Creative Review, Eliza Williams, "Lacoste releases first ever brand TV spot", 7 February 2014, added during the retrofit, for BETC Paris having created Lacoste's first ever brand TV commercial with the new tagline "Life is a Beautiful Sport", and for the film airing first in France, on 7 February 2014, to coincide with the opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics. https://www.creativereview.co.uk/lacoste-releases-first-ever-brand-tv-spot/
4. Marketing Directo, "Lacoste invierte 50 millones de euros en «Unconventional Chic», su nueva campaña publicitaria global", unsigned, 13 December 2010, off whitelist and added for corroboration only, for "Unconventional Chic" as the slogan of Lacoste's new global advertising campaign, replacing "Un Peu d'Air sur Terre", and for the campaign having been created by BETC Luxe: "La creación de la campaña ha corrido a cargo de Betc Luxe". The article dates the launch of the slogan to December 2010. https://www.marketingdirecto.com/marketing-general/lacoste-invierte-50-millones-de-euros-en-unconventional-chic-su-nueva-campana-publicitaria-global
5. Wikipedia, "BETC", "Lacoste" and "Felipe Oliveira Baptista", encyclopaedic reference, listed in the article's sources and consulted on 25 September 2026, for BETC as a French advertising agency founded in Paris in 1995, part of the Havas group, divided into branches including the luxury-focused BETC Luxe, with Lacoste among the clients for which it has designed campaigns, and for Felipe Oliveira Baptista as creative director of Lacoste from 2010 until 2018, having succeeded Christophe Lemaire in September 2010. None of the three describes the Spring/Summer 2014 collection or the pieces the body names. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BETC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacoste https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felipe_Oliveira_Baptista
6. LBBOnline, "'Life is a Beautiful Sport' in Lacoste's Spectacular Metaphor for Life's Drama", unsigned, 20 May 2019, and The Stable, "BETC Paris: Lacoste plays on the beautiful sport of relationships", unsigned, 20 May 2019, both off whitelist and listed in the article's sources, for the 2019 campaign Crocodile Inside, created by BETC under the idea "life is a beautiful sport", with a film directed by the collective Megaforce in which a couple, played by Oulaya Amamra and Kevin Azaïs, leap back towards each other as their home collapses, deployed worldwide from 19 May 2019; and The Stable for BETC Paris having replaced Lacoste's crocodile logo to help the International Union for Conservation of Nature save threatened species. AdForum, "Life is a beautiful sport since 1933", the campaign archive entry listed in the article's sources, appears in AdForum's listings as BETC Paris work directed by Megaforce, but the page returned an error to every fetch; page not reachable on 25 September 2026. None of these pages presents the Save Our Species edition as part of the 2014 platform. https://lbbonline.com/news/life-is-a-beautiful-sport-in-lacostes-spectacular-metaphor-for-lifes-drama https://www.thestable.com.au/betc-paris-lacoste-plays-on-the-beautiful-sport-of-relationships/ https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/34590568/life-is-a-beautiful-sport-since-1933/lacoste
7. Creative Review, Eliza Williams, "Lacoste replaces crocodile logo for limited edition range", 1 March 2018, added during the retrofit, for Lacoste having swapped its crocodile logo for ten of the world's most threatened animals on a set of limited edition polo shirts, made with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and its Save Our Species initiative and launched during Lacoste's show at Paris Fashion Week. https://www.creativereview.co.uk/lacoste-replaces-crocodile-logo/
8. La Réclame, Myléna T., "La vie est à nouveau un 'beautiful sport' pour Lacoste", 28 April 2026, off whitelist and listed in the article's sources, for the new global campaign by BETC that brings back the signature "installée depuis 2014", with a film directed by Fredrik Bond that ends on the court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland-Garros facing "Novak Djokovic, égérie de la marque"; and Lacoste, "Lacoste unveils a new brand campaign", corporate newsroom, 27 April 2026, the matching release on the "Lacoste news" index listed in the article's sources, whose archive reaches back only to 2018, for the campaign developed by BETC, the film helmed by Fredrik Bond and its climax on Court Philippe-Chatrier with House Ambassador Novak Djokovic. In both, the lead of the film is a young woman and Djokovic appears at its close. https://lareclame.fr/betc-lacoste-beautifulsport-334519 https://corporate.lacoste.com/lacoste-unveils-a-new-brand-campaign/ https://corporate.lacoste.com/lacoste-news/
