Perfume is marketed in many different ways, from the little scented tabs in magazines to huge print adverts on the sides of city sky scrapers. One method of advertising perfume that I've never really understood are TV commercials. Last night as I was watching some high quality television (White Chicks. I was watching White Chicks) a commercial appeared on the screen for the latest and greatest new perfume. What was this amazing new perfume you ask? Sorry, I can't tell you the name of it -- or even the brand, because I was too focused on how weird the actual commercial was. There were giant muscled dudes dressed up as gods, a goddess made to look like she was actually glowing, and I'm pretty sure there was a stone lion that came to life thrown in there at some point. It was confusing, over sexualized, and clearly wasn't successful because I have no idea what the actual product was.
The men and women in charge of marketing perfume have a tough job. How do you try and get someone to buy a product that's based purely on what scent most appealing to them, without having that person actually smell it? Especially on a platform like TV, where we're years away from widespread Smell-O-Vision. Their solution thus far? Making weird and super sexual commercials that leave you feeling a combination of stressed, confused and uncomfortable.
I decided to check out Sephora's list of best selling perfumes and look up the commercials for some of the different scents. These perfumes are best sellers, so it's only reasonable to think that their advertising campaigns were successful. I set out with high expectations, ready to watch some high quality perfume commercials that would send me running to the store to spend $93 on 1.6 oz of perfume.
The first perfume commercial I decided to watch was for Dolce&Gabbana's Docle Rosa Excelsa. Notice the title -- "Dolce Rosa Excelsa, The Film". That's right, this is not some lowly commercial trying to get you to buy their perfume. It's a film, meant to be enjoyed. So I devoted three minutes and eleven seconds of my life to reveling in it's artistic charm.
While I appreciate the bad ass older woman taking charge of this restoration with the help of her five good-looking minions, if I didn't know this was a perfume commercial I would have thought it was a commercial for a strange yet inspiring Italian home improvement movie. But I mean I guess I see where the director was going with this, nothing says women's perfume like barely clothed men spraying each other with hoses.
The next commercial I decided to watch was for Black Opium by Yves Saint Laurent. With a name inspired by a highly addictive narcotic drug this one had to be good.
First of all, I would like to know how she runs so quickly in those heels. Next I would like us all to take a moment to appreciate how they first named their perfume after a drug, then made the girl in the commercial an perfume addict, running through the city in the middle of the night to get her fix. Genius.
The third perfume commercial I watched was for Marc Jacobs Daisy and Daisy Eau So Fresh. This is the perfume I use and I can honestly say I picked it out after smelling approximately 47 other bottles of perfume before settling on this one -- not because of a perfume commercial.
This commercial was promising. Slow, nice music in a field of daisies. Fully clothed women. Then we get to the horse and that's where they lost me.
I mean, I'm no expert horseback rider, but something tells me that's not the most proper and safe way to ride a horse.
The final perfume commercial I watched was for Prada Candy. I was excited to learn that this ad was directed by one of my favorite directors, Wes Anderson.
The symmetry, quirky characters and beautiful shots characteristic of Wes Anderson were all there. The woman's name was the same as the perfume, which made it a little more memorable -- but I still had no idea that this was a perfume commercial until the very end.
Best selling or not, perfume commercials are and probably always will be a little strange. While I appreciate the effort put into trying to create an advertisement that's memorable and unique, I think I'll stick to smelling the different bottles in the store the next time I want to switch up my perfume.
