Tony Kaye directs Joan Collins in Olympus ad

Lowe Howard-Spink created the 90-second ad, which breaks in the UK next week.

The film turns celebrity-stalking on its head by featuring Collins -playing herself - going to desperate lengths in order to steal an Olympus i Zoom 75 from a man called Ralph - who has used it to take some innocent snaps of her.

She is driven to distraction by the fact that the camera, launched earlier this year, has such a good quality lens that the photos will reveal all her wrinkles.

Collins is filmed stalking Ralph at work, shouting and climbing fences, rummaging through dustbins and tearing apart his flat in her desperate

search.

The ad marks a return to commercials directing for Kaye, who announced that he was quitting the industry to be 'the Walt Disney of the next millennium' last June.

The film was art directed by Vince Squibb and written by Paul

Silburn.

UK media planning and buying, which is still being finalised, is through Western International Media.

It is the first time that Olympus has run a pan-European campaign. The company's roster of European agencies - DDB Needham in France, Young & Rubicam in Germany and Lowes in Britain - were invited to pitch for the project last December.

Ian Dickins, the Olympus UK marketing director, said that continental marketers want to emulate the success of the brand in the UK. 'This time around, Olympus Hamburg said we would have a creative shoot-out between Y&R, DDB and Lowes because they saw the impact of the last Naomi Campbell campaign and wanted it.'

Collins has not starred in an ad since the 70s, when she featured in the Cinzano classics with Leonard Rossiter.

This article was first published on Campaign