Appearing on screens as a movie trailer and containing no branding, the £15m campaign aims to add a contemporary and slicker edge to the brand, which has previously been regarded as a marque for middle-aged businessmen.
It also hopes to regain some of the car's luxury status, following criticisms of concentrating on the lower end of the market.
The ad, entitled 'Lucky Star', a reference to Mercedes' three-pronged logo, enters adwatch this week in joint 12th position, with 42% recall.
The ad is start-up agency Campbell Doyle Dye's debut work since setting up in January of this year. It stars Hollywood actor Benicio del Toro of Traffic and Usual Suspects fame and was directed by Heat director Michael Mann.
The ad takes the form of trailer for a fictitious movie called Lucky Star. In it, Del Toro stars as a master gambler and stock market supremo, married to a beautiful woman. On closer inspection, viewers can notice the numerous slick shots of Del Toro in the Mercedes SL 500 and an absence of a release date.
At the end, the web site address www.luckyluckystar.com is flagged up,and for those who didn't guess the true nature of the trailer, all is finally revealed.
Casper Thykier, partner at CDD says: "We decided to take the unconventional approach as we wanted the advertising to be as good as the product. You can't really say you're luxurious, you have to be it, and we thought film could demonstrate this in greater depth than a standard ad."
"Although car sales have doubled in volume over the years, we wanted to balance accessibility with luxury, adds Thykier.
"We wanted some of the magic to seem attainable by ordinary people. In a way, the character achieves his luck through practice - the more he practices, the luckier he gets. Hopefully we have come up with something that will affect the entire portfolio."
Over the past few years, the Mercedes brand has focused on a mass-market positioning. A campaign last year using the theme of star signs tried to show that there is a model available to suit everyone.
The Lucky Star ad broke in cinemas on July 4. Media planning by agency BJK&E ensured that the ad was shown among other movie trailers rather than ads. TV ads started the following day.
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