Polo player Nacho Figueras, his wife, Delfina Blaquier, and their three adorable children ham it up for director Bruce Weber as Seal sings My Romance. The whole thing is so Ralph Lauren it hurts — watching it just once took all the enamel off my teeth. You probably already guessed, but it's for Ralph Lauren Romance perfume.
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ARRRG! MY TEETH!
They are for realz… I mean there are actually gated comunities about 30 kms north of Buenos Aires filled with clones of these, living the Ralph Lauren dream.
There is a mall, Unicenter, where they (and their neighbours) congregate… you should see the lines at the RL store the days after christmas, they actually wait in line to but the stuff..
She comes from a very high society family too (the matron of her family was head of the museum of modern art here in Argentina) so basically the whole package is the “ideal” of perfection, class and beauty. They are interesting in an anthropological view kind of way, but trust me, they can be boring and shallow as you cannot imagine.(rationalizing envy)
And the eyebrows are just because she is bleached blond, and her true hair color is dishwater blond-light brunette, as is the case with most of the clones. It is a rite of passage.. they get sweet fifteen trips to Miami, a nosejob if required, and a bottle of peroxide. X-D
Ha, ha – the less one knows about the people in most perfume ads, the better! Not my idea of Romance, either. (OK – some sour grapes here, too, admittedly.)
since I was born with none of things , I shall join you in rationalizing some deep seated envy…..how’s this: her face looks fairly blank throughout the video…so, too much privilege, vacuous, bleached blonde!
actually, it was okay—-nobody was naked , or scowling at the camera , or writhing orgasmically in a pile of flowers, or removing all their clothes, or having bizarre phone conversations while putting ON their clothes (I still have not figured out that one with Jude Law!) —of course they and their kids are all lovely and I like it that it seemed to be a wholesome kind of “happy life” video……one thing bothered me (only one thing? ha) that woman’s eyebrows are way too dark for her hair etc. …picky, I know….but I was really distracted by her eyebrows!!! Maybe this is a sign that it is time to go do some real work today….
It was absolutely ok. Just sort of astonishing, how every little detail is so Ralph Lauren: the clothes, the dog, the kid’s pajamas, the horse cart, everything. They do a much better job than most brands, IMHO, of communicating the brand “codes” in their commercials. If you watch this plus the Big Pony commercial, that’s sort of everything you need to know about Ralph Lauren. In both cases, I find the short versions of the commercials easier to take. At 2 minutes, I start to get nauseated by the aggressive perfection of it all.
“Aggressive perfection”!
ooooo “aggressive perfection” ….that’s good!, mind if I borrow that sometime?
It is yours to use as you see fit.
can I use it for evil and never for good?
I think you could argue that aggressive perfection, and its cousin aggressive luxurification, are in and of themselves insidiously evil and never good.
All I could think as she bounced around the countryside on the back of that horse with no bra was “ouch”.
Otherwise it seemed like a compilation of “touching couple moments” from all the furniture, vacation and Cotton ads (it’s the fabric of our lives, in case you didn’t know) .
…I suspected that Cotton might be the fabric of my life….thanks for clearing that up.
…also thanks for the implied earworm….that commercial jingle will now be with me for the remainder of the day.
Not sure if that’s better or worse than yesterday….Lady Gaga You were born this way…..all. day. long. in. my. head.
Omg, the worst ever for me has been Cee-Lo Green’s song “Forget you (aka F*** you)”. I really like it, but once it’s in my head I Cannot. Get. It. OUT!
Gotcha.
Yesterday I had Justin Bieber’s “Baby, Baby” stuck in my head for two hours. Not pretty, had to blast some Motley Crue to relieve the pressure.
Oh you poor thing! May I recommend “Wild Side”? That one tends to get stuck in my head pretty easily!
Yes! I do think this goes on too long. At 30 seconds, it will actually be more effective.
Well… Seal did a nice job with that classic, anyway, even if the rest of the ad was scripted, practiced, airbrushed and edited.
Yes, nicely done.
He was the only reason I watched it. I adore Seal… though I didn’t think this song suited his voice that well.
Think I’d have preferred the commercial w/Seal and Heidi and kids, for that matter.
I felt slightly nauseated, and that was WITHOUT the sound on
Try leaving the sound on and turning away from the screen, it’s much nicer…
and, to remain on the ad topic, but complete change of subject – for the gossips among us: the funniest ad going around at the moment is the royal wedding spoof by a British mobile phone company (on youtube)
That really is cute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY0OHQwhiq8
Thanks for the link! What a hoot.
Now that’s ROMANCE
I too had an upset stomach after a minute. Same thought: no bra= very uncomfortable. In addition, when someone is holding you around the neck when you are riding a horse, I’m pretty sure that means you are going to fall off.
Wasn’t the hand on the guitar player white, which Seal most certainly is not?
And by the way, the song lyrics declare “My Romance does not need a castle in Spain. .. My Romance does not need anything but you.” This couple required a castle, a private park, etc.
I suspect the lady, after an afternoon of riding, being nuzzled by the pets and hugging her children, smells of horse and dog, not perfume.
I double checked, the hand playing the guitar in the video is white.
Well, but he typically just sings anyway, doesn’t he?
I haven’t smelled the actual fragrance yet, but surprisingly I LOVED it in a magazine strip in the latest issue of Vogue. Yes, those strips typically bear little relationship to the real thing, and ten hours later the strip just smelled of glossy paper and ink; still, I will definitely seek this out for further sniffing.
Pretty sacharine, I must say. And the facial expressions that woman makes are priceless.
I had to rewind and see whether their dog jumped out of the moving carriage, or was pushed out. I’m leaning more towards the former. Still, it was mildly off-putting.
I double checked that too. I’m pretty sure the dog jumped of his own volition but I think the angle was what made it awkward. RL don’t make me call the ASPCA on you!
Yeah, I saw that too. Yikes! They need the “no animals were hurt in the making of this otherwise totally aggressively perfect video” disclaimer.
I can’t believe they left that in! I really thought the dog was going to be hurt. It did get right up, but one’s nerves are already jangled!
no kidding! All I could thing was “that poor dog’s hip joints!!”
Hmmm. Well, at least they’re all a real family and not one put together by a casting agent. If you cut out most of the smoochy stuff, I think it would be much more bearable. But then it will probably look more like a travel destination commercial.
Romance was my first perfume that i went and bought for myself in high school. It has a really nostalgic feeling for me. To this day, I still like it when I sniff it even though I’ve moved on from the fragrance. I’ll be honest, I really bought the perfume because I loved the original ad.
I noticed the new ads are out in magazines recently. Thank you for posting this. I liked this video. The polo player is gorgeous and his family is gorgeous, they are a real life Ralph Lauren ad. It’s totally true to the spirit of RL and it’s so sweet, it does make my teeth hurt a little.
If you watch it without the sound, and ignore the Ralph Lauren text at the opening, it looks like a his and hers and family wedding season advertisement for Zyrtec.
HA! *Like*
Ha! That is so awesome.
It does make a nice change from naked writhing in the back of limos.
So these are the “beautiful people” I have heard mention of! He was rather nice…… not a fan of Romance though.
I used to wear it… as in, used up a bottle of it… yet can’t remember how it smelled in the slightest. Not exactly high praise, is it? Safari, otoh… that, I wore for years.
I have never smelled Safari, is it nice? I gave away my bottle of Romance years ago-it wasnt me!
I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Nacho during an event in Melbourne and he was very sweet, a gentleman. He was very down to earth; somehow we came to talking about his kids! He even obliged me with a photograph.
His wife however seemed quite the cranky sourpuss – perhaps she was still jetlagged.
Well, I don’t know about all of you, but I definitely go bareback riding in a long silk taffeta dress – NOT!
I suspect superglue involvement…..