The new Chanel No. 5 commercial, starring Audrey Tautou and Travis Davenport, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. This is the 1 minute version; you can watch the longer version at chaneln5.
The music is Billie Holiday singing I'm A Fool To Want You.
Update: today is Chanel No. 5 Day in New York City; more after the jump...
From the press release:
May 5, 2009 has been designated by the city of New York as CHANEL N˚5 Day in celebration of the iconic fragrance and the unveiling of its latest campaign featuring acclaimed actress Audrey Tautou. CHANEL and Saks Fifth Avenue have partnered for this significant occasion during which a portion of Fifth Avenue is being renamed AVENUE N˚5 for the week of May 2 through May 10.
[...] As a thank you to the city of New York for its support in making CHANEL N˚5 Day possible, CHANEL and Saks will partner to create a new arts program at P.S. 5, the Ellen Lurie Elementary School. The donation will provide funding for the arts program, specifically four separate after-school arts classes—graphic arts, photography, chess and drama—as well supplies and field trips to a local museum or cultural institution for each class. Participating children will benefit from the after school program, which they will be able to attend for an hour and a half four times a week.
[...] From May 2 through May 10, Saks Fifth Avenue’s New York flagship will pay homage to the legendary scent by dedicating an extraordinary visual presence on the exterior and interior of the store. The 17 windows along AVENUE N˚5 will display a thematic journey into the world of CHANEL N˚5 inspired by the Train de Nuit film as well as selections from the current CHANEL Ready-to-Wear collection. The fragrance will be prominently displayed on the main floor and in outposts throughout the store. A full cinematic presentation of Train de Nuit will take place on the main floor.
what a struggle… I love her. AudreyTautou is so beautiful. Yet, my mom wore #5. I hope I have no memory of the scent from back then… We will see.
She is lovely!
I don’t know why, but… it bores me terrifically too. Emotionless. It’s beautifully photographed though.
Did you go watch the longer one? It’s better (and looks better w/ the larger screen size).
Can’t decide yet what I think of it. It’s miles better than the Nicole Kidman one, which always makes me laugh.
Hmm. Just watched the long version. Meh. But nice film.
I loved how cute Audrey was in Amélie, but I think now all I see are her too-sunken cheeks and this character looks like the same part she played in Hors de Prix / Priceless and it’s hard to purge that from my memory. Like I said, it feels emotionless somehow (I know its just a perfume ad, though!).
LOL — just recently watched Priceless so I know what you mean.
*steps up on a soapbox*The “too-sunken cheeks” comment kind of annoys me. Dislike the ad spot, but dang, what does Tatou’s weight have to do with anything?
I’m a skinny person and get crap all of the time about my weight. Many of the harshest comments about how I look have come from men (Olive Oyl being my personal favorite). This focus on the weight of female celebrities is what makes us normal folks damned if you’re perceived as too skinny and also damned if you’re perceived as too fat.
I don’t know you, joe, and I don’t think you are some kind of horrible person for your comment, I just couldn’t let it slide. Sorry for the tangent, Robin. *steps off of soapbox*
I don’t want to argue, but I have no problem with skinny people, large people, whatever. I actually enjoy human variation.
I just personally think Tautou looks “worse” somehow then she did five or six years ago, and I feel lately as though she and Keira Knightley both look like they’re sucking their cheeks in whenever I see them. Who knows, maybe it’s natural that they have razor-sharp cheekbones and that’s just how they’re built, but I still suspect that the “skinny actress” trend has more to do with fashion pressure than a bunch of people who just happen to be “naturally slim” — and there’s nothing wrong with being naturally slim, for sure! Sorry to stir the pot!
I like Audrey Tatou but I don’t really like this commercial.
I agree with everything Joe said.
I’m going to watch the 1 Million commercial now.
That’s a great commercial.
a Chanel no. 5 would obviously be a lot different from 1 Million, but the kind of marketing behind no. 5 doesn’t appeal to me at all.
It probably matches the perfume though, I don’t know because I’ve never smelled it.
I certainly like this much better than Nicole Kidman. In fact, I think Audrey Tautou fits the ideal of the advertisement more.
Sure, it’s a bit sappy. I personally think they could nix the strapping young man (surely a few years younger than her in all aspects). But the restlessness on the train? Her journey?
Nicole Kidman’s spot seemed more to advocate holing up with a man where no one may get to you and letting go of everything save this certain fantasy. Tautou’s spot seemed more independent and tough, traveling by oneself and enjoying the beauty of where life takes you. She didn’t need the man but he seemed a reward.
Plus, the imagery was much better. When they close up on the bottle, rumbling from the train’s insensitivity, the golden liquid pulsing…. Best shot in there. And there’s certainly a metaphor to be uncovered there….
I’ve only smelled the Eau de Parfum and now I really want to sample the parfum. Not because of the ad so much but just to experience it. I feel a little lost. =P
[/rant]
Forgot something. xD
I also loved how Chanel No 5 went with all her clothes, unlike Nicole Kidman who was either in haute couture or playing dress-up. Seems more realistic.
I agree — he was too young, and handsome but not really interesting enough.
Love it! The long version. Now I want a bottle of Chanel no. 5.
Then it worked!
I love it, the long version….now I want Travis Davenport…
(snicker)
i love audrey tautou.
and i love billie holiday.
and my inner camera nerd is drooling at the leica m8.
its absolutely beautifully shot, all else aside. i would definitely go out and at least smell the stuff, if i was the target market. i am not, however.
Funny, I don’t think a commercial has ever made me want to go out an smell a fragrance. Then again, I always want to anyway!
I must totally be a sucker then 😛
This beautifully composed number hooked me…and I definitely wanted to check out Antidote after seeing the ad on the back cover of GQ a couple years ago (of course, i very shortly forgot what that ad was for, and didn’t put 2 and 2 together till about a year after I smelled Antidote…I don’t know what that says for the ad exactly. Perhaps it just says i was taking a fashion photography class at the time and have an atrocious memory. lol)
Well, as I said, I always want to smell anything anyway, so maybe it is just all preaching to the already converted!
She is always pretty sweet, n this one is lovely!
Yes!
Very nice commercial, but pretty long for a fragrance ad. Love the theme and the colors though!
They generally do long ads for No. 5. I assume they’ll show a shorter version on TV.
I love the song, the photography, the prod. design, the wardrobe… seems very true to the image of N. 5 to me. But I agree with Joe that the ensemble of the commercial hasn’t moved me much.
Also, I don’t think Audrey T.’s the right actress to portray Coco. She’s a sweet thing and funny too, but I would’ve liked to have seen another choice for this part. I guess you need a big name to back up a big budget biopic like this one, though.
I also didn’t like Marion Cotillard as Piaf, but then I really disliked that film in general, it wasn’t solely her performance, which I didn’t find it exceptional.
I did not love the Piaf movie either. Have not yet seen the Chanel, but I suppose even if Tautou turns out to be wrong for that, doesn’t mean she was wrong for this.
Me three. La Vie En Rose was, how you say, execrable. As for this C5 ad, there was basically no chemistry between Tatou (gone bony) and a generic male model. All gloss, no hunger. Nothing like the genius of that long-ago ad, with the woman lounging by the pool, and the shadow of the man diving into the pool to get to her.
Nicely done. I love Audrey Tautou.
Me too.
I also like the portrayal of the Tatou character as independent and tough. The great thing about these ads is that Chanel always has something new to say about the woman who embodies the fragrance. She is not stuck in the past. My other great love in perfume is Mitsouko, but I don’t think I’ve seen an ad for it except for some vintage ads. Okay, so it’s all clever marketing, but Chanel no. 5 is striding into the twenty-first century, while Mitsouko looks … well … very 1919.
Guerlain does not make the big deal about advertising that Chanel does, not even for Shalimar.
Great perfume, and a nice commercial. I like Tatou very much.
Do you by any chance have knowledge of a perfume that smells like freesia?
Please let me know.
Diptyque Ofresia.
I think the new Bond No. 9 Astor Place is a freesia scent?
Antonia’s Flowers
This is featured in a big way on the MSN homepage this morning. I think it’s very nicely done. I’m in the minority and also enjoyed the Nicole Kidman ads – I thought she looked so pretty. I did NOT care for the Kiera Knightly spots though. The biggest culprit being what they did to the music in that one – sort of turning the song L-O-V-E into a hip-hop mess. It just didn’t work, though I suppose Kiera had a Coco look about her.
Kidman looked gorgeous, I agree — just didn’t care for the plot.
don’t like the commercial too much. and Chanel is going ALL OUT on this one, eh? renaming Fifth Avenue….. wow.
Chanel makes a big deal of new commercials, more so than any other perfume brand, and in some way they make a bigger deal about the commercials than they do about new scent launches.
Oh, I really like this ad, it’s much better than Miss Dior Cherie one, I think. But still, my favorite parfume ad is Chanel Egoiste. 😉
The MDC was fun though…this is rather different.
I like this advert much, much more than the Nicole Kidman one, where I felt Baz Luhrman was sending up NO. 5 rather than promoting it. ( That bit where NK says “I’m a dancer! I love to dance! makes me fall apart laughing. To me, it seems to be her worst performance ever apart from Cold Mountain.) This advert actually is about the SMELL of the perfume, and I think Audrey Tatou exudes a lot more sensuality than NK did. Bloke’s too young and is probably on his way to meet his mates for a surfing holiday. It’s a beautiful advert; just a shame it’s for a perfume I really cannot warm to, in any incarnation. I think I might substitute it in my mind with, say, Poivre or Metalys…
Apologies for lousy punctuation and typing!
Yes — that part cracked me up entirely. Silly stuff. This is much better, but agree the man is all wrong, & as someone said above, no chemistry there. It’s ok, she carries the ad, and after all it’s only 2 minutes.
Ok – Nice! Here I am hemming and hawing over getting some No 5 parfum for about 7 months now….and wishing I could go on a lovely European train trip with my husband (child at home)…. This commercial makes me want to buy a gorgeous outfit and a bottle of No 5. What can I say? I am a sucker for some well done glamour on a boring Tuesday morning. And yes, Audrey Tautou is a much better spokes person for Chanel than they’ve had for a long time. Keep them French I say! She and Vanessa Paradise were/are the best ones – I loved the Coco bird in a cage thing from the late 80s/early 90s. (Of course Ines de la Fressange was the first one that made me wish I was French, had great cheekbones, and be a brunette.)
I’d take that train trip too!!!
I love Audrey Tatou–she’s beautiful, interesting, sensual and a good actress; I think the ad is beautifully filmed, romantic and sultry. I am drawn to Chanel #5 but seem to only reach for it before going to bed at night.
Well, I think that’s when they want you to reach for it!
What everyone really wants to know is whether the kids at PS 5 will get any swag.
The whole PR campaign is pretty brilliant (also, expensive!).
LOL — I’m sure the kids will get something, swap or otherwise. NY got their side of the bargain, I’m sure.
I agree that there’s a disjunction between the tone of the film – moody, contemplative, quiet – and the scent itself. I personally love and wear no. 5, but I see it as more positive, more outgoing. I’m not sure what would be a better fit, though, I’ll have to think about it. Maybe a classic Guerlain?
Yes, it is a moody film. In that sense, maybe the Kidman one was a better fit, but do think this is a better commercial.
Damn! it’s hot on that train! 😉
I like this better than the one with Nicole.
The longer version does make a lot more sense.
I think that N 5 is a classic, a very romantic fragrance.
Most people can pull it off (as opposed to some niche scents that require special skin chemistry and sometimes a special attitude)
But if you are lucky and have some extra skin chemistry, N 5 goes from classic to divine in less than 6 seconds, same as it happens when some women wear opium. 🙂
The short version might be too short, agree…and assume what they’ll show on tv might be even shorter, which might be too dull since the story will be lost.