James Dean lives?

There’s a new commercial out that’s one part creative, one part tear-jerking and one part sacrilege. The concept is simply, what if James Dean didn’t die at 24? The minute long spot shows him going on to protest Vietnam, direct films and do charity work. It’s a touching tale of a life that could have been, had it not been tragically cut short.

Knowing that this was some sort of commercial, I was expecting it to maybe be for some sort of African charity, speaking to what would be possible if millions of children’s lives weren’t prematurely ended by disease and hunger.

But no.

It’s for long term investing with Allan Gray.

I’m not sure who’s controlling the estate of James Dean these days, but as one unusually observant YouTube commenter points out, “If James Dean had lived…he wouldn’t have wanted his image to be used in a commercial for investing.” So it’s clearly an affront to his memory in that regard, but if you watch it without the whole investment angle, it’s a pretty damn impressive piece of filmmaking.