Fragrance adverts: dull, or the dullest? They all follow the same drearily predictable formula. Humourless models writhe and brood before the camera, while a husky female voice amorously drawls the brand name.
It all feels so obsolete, so ‘90s, appreciated only by the kind of people who think Qatar is a great place to host a World Cup. And it looks like we’ve finally had enough.
— Flux Magazine writes about the growth of independent perfumery. Read more at Why luxury fragrances are changing – Meet the independent perfumers.
Those ads are such a turn off. I would love to see an ad in which real perfumistas, men and women in real life situations, compliment eachother on their perfume and share stories. Kind of like what we do here. I don’t think I’ve ever gone out and bought a perfume after seeing a tv ad, but I’ve bought many perfumes as a result of reading this blog.
AMEN! I laugh at most of the fragrance commercials that I see.
It’s interesting to me that even brands that generally do fantastic video/commercials (like Hermes) generally do crappy perfume ads, although at least Hermes doesn’t do the writhing stuff usually. But generally speaking, it’s pretty rare that any of the year’s great ads are about fragrance.
Just so long as they use real people, rather than actors pretending to be real people…
I was at Sephora recently and a kid(10-12?) Was there with his mom to buy the Pharrell Williams frag which I thought was too sophisticated for a little kid. He gave it a quick whiff and I asked him if he liked it and he shrugged. His mom said “He doesn’t care. He wants it cuz he likes Pharrell!” So clearly the celeb thing works for some(probably more than we’d like to think). And I’m betting that kid didn’t like that woody frag.
Hey, but maybe he’ll grow up with better taste in perfume now
Send ’em the Prix Eau Faux copy!
I have a different opinion on this – I like to see theatre, beautiful people, lovely clothes in an ad, writhing or no writhing… What do I need “real people” for, I see enough of them on the train, in the office, on the streets.
I also would not necessarily put “obsolete” and 90ies in one sentence… Almost all my favorite parfumes were done in the nineties.