If you’ve ever heard the words “the new fragrance pour femme” and were left in confusion at what that barrage of surreal imagery had to do with perfume, you’re not alone. Fragrance ads are famous for not making sense.
These ads are strange because, in a sense, they have to be.
You can’t demonstrate a smell like you can with cleaning products. Unlike fashion, it would be meaningless to show someone wearing cologne. A closeup of a burger can trigger memories of its smell, but there’s no way to know what a little pink bottle would smell like.
Instead, fragrance commercials portray how their products will make you feel. They employ images of sensuality, luxury and romance.
The fantasy aspect goes beyond the actual content. The style of perfume commercials actually attempts to recreate what it feels like to daydream. This is the reason why they tend to disregard logic or realism.
Rather than use a linear narrative, many perfume ads tend to use an aspect-to-aspect style, which shows different facets of a place or situation rather than providing a plot. An ad might make quick, abrupt cuts between a flowing dress, crashing waves, a couple kissing on a boat and mermaids.
This mimics the way the mind wanders during daydreams, making up new details as it goes along.
The fanciful nature of fragrance commercials makes them an easy target for mockery. But when it comes to advertising, perfume commercials are far from the worst offenders.
While incredibly superficial, their aspirational characters are ultimately more positive than the obnoxious or disturbingly dumb “comedic” characters that so many down-to-earth ads have.
Is it really that funny that Jennifer Coolidge thinks it’s okay to eat lipstick because it was in a grocery bag?
I’d much rather watch a melodrama about an overexposed celebrity running away with some guy she met in a taxi or Adam Driver transforming into a centaur for no apparent reason than sit through an onslaught of every side effect imaginable during a pharmaceutical ad.
It is a real mood killer to be listening to a YouTube Christmas playlist or watching the Thanksgiving Parade and having to hear about all the ways the drug you’re taking can hurt you.
I would argue that unrealistic commercials make more sense from a marketing standpoint than realistic ones. Everyone is living a different day-to-day reality. Marketing can’t really encapsulate the diversity of life experiences that actually exist.
From wealthy executives trying to relate to the average consumer to older writers trying to be hip with the kids, we’ve all experienced cringe-worthy attempts by companies trying to be relevant.
The romance and empowerment of perfume commercials are as artificial as the fragrances themselves, but they aren’t necessarily more fake than corporate attempts at relatability.
If I won a contest and the prize was to film anything I wanted, I would make a perfume commercial. And that’s despite having a pretty lean collection of scents myself. I would treat it purely as an excuse to indulge in pure melodrama and fantasy, and I don’t think I’d be alone in that.
Not only do fragrance ads attract A-list actors, but they’ve had their share of serious directors as well. Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, Spike Jonze and even David Lynch have all directed ads for cologne or perfume.
I have a sneaking suspicion that fragrance ads are actually just an excuse for industry creatives to make projects that aren’t constrained by the typical need for plot and logic. And the advertising world is all the better for it.
Holmes can be reached at Holmesc4277@uwec.edu.
