The image in the ad vs. the scent itself

I always get the idea that the major designers already have the marketing and advertising campaign created BEFORE the scent is created. In most cases the scent itself is secondary to the image in the advertising.

I hate fragrance ads, for the most part, for many of the reasons you mentioned.

About the only fragrance ad that I ever thought was really quite brilliant was never even shown here in the US. Of course, it was the famous M7 ad which featured a fully frontal male nude. I thought it pretty smart (whether or not one was turned on/off from the nudity) because it seemed to fit exactly with the image that Tom Ford hoped to present from Gucci and YSL; a sexy, confident, natural man who just "makes it work." For example, Ford didn't even use a professional model for the shoot... I think he was a football/soccer player or something just sitting relaxed on a blank background. Anyway, he was physically fit, but didn't look like he'd been in make-up for two hours prior to shooting and he didn't look overly "staged."

But, the vast majority, such as the ubiquitous Armani Code and AdG ads shown around Christmas, really did nothing for me. Armani Code simply said, "Do you have the CODE? The CODE of seduction? Armani CODE!" Same with AdG; it simply showed waves crashing on a beach. Even though I'm openly hostile to most Armani, I would have reacted just as negatively if the ad said, "Do you have the Loup? The Mechant Loup? L'artisan Parfumeur" followed by a bunch of wolves running through a field in slow motion.

Hermes ads are pretty good, but only because they present the fragrance and the name. They don't really try to knock you over the head with too much presentation or production.

I don't see many ads for frags, to which I'm grateful. I know when things are available through the board, and that's all I need. I really, REALLY don't want the image of some shirtless sweaty beefcake following me around all day as I catch a whiff of my SOTD.

Loewe Solo is one of the best scents I know. Yet the head in the ad makes me wonder: WHY JUST THIS ONE?

http://www.lvmh.fr/magazine/pg_mag_c...&str_theme_id=

The only fragrance ads I'm familiar with is the ones on youtube from the 80s that we were ridiculing.

I'm generally oblivious to ad campaigns. Blissfully so.

I use TiVO to clip ads in TV I watch. The only magazine I subscribe to is the Economist.

The marketing is so cheesy and predictable anymore, and seems to follow a basic paradox formula:

"It is cold but also hot"
"Sensitive but agressive"
"Feminine but 100% masculine"
"Fresh yet not fresh at all"
"Dry and very aquatic"

Haha I hope everyone gets the idea. Look out for these kinds of claims next time you leaf through a magazine or look at online retailers, they all make me roll my eyes.

As for ads themselves, how about A*Men's? The Silver Surfer/X-Men Sentinal thing going on is ambitious, but I don't think represents the scent at all. Hmm..

Few ads catch my eye. There were the Chanel ads of many years ago that featured an almost inhumanly beautiful Catherine Deneueve. They really took my breath away! Aside from that, not many. I remember a nice ad for Roger et Gallet's L'Homme because the model was bald - although really fit and good looking. Sort of added a human touch. Most have little to do with the fragrance. Like Cool Water - the scent is neither cool nor is it aquatic. That is usually par for the course, although some of the Hermes ads actually do portray what the firm is attempting to convey - wealth and privilege.

Lol; that's so true. It's also great when they add made up nonsense words, "Pizazz! Zippy! Zesty!" or things that could also be read to be very negative, "Strikingly original!" I mean, the Third Reich was "Strikingly Original"... yet not in a good way.


Wow! That guy is just plain creepy. He's DEFINITELY "Strikingly Original!"

I must admit; they've never made me jump off of the sofa to part with my money, however it's particularly bad around Christmas Time!!

At Christmas one in five ads are frag ads, aimed at the impulse buyer, imagining their dream partner half naked in the surf, flashing intense enigmatic stares and smouldering glances, or, orther 'romantic' themes such as horse riding, touch me - touch you, white linen suits, etc aahhh..

All this is then followed by an image of a semi- iconic new bottle of something that smells like all others in that commercial break......Im turning into a grumpy old man!

I prefer the old cheesy adds; the moustache man, the hairy chest ( Denim!) and the Karate moves and side burns that would make Elvis spin in his grave in ''Hai Karate''

Oh yes, the frag, nothing like the add..

In real estate it is: Location! Location! Location!

In scent seems to be: Sex! Sex! Sex!

At least that is what I mostly see in magazine/billboard advertisements for both men's and woman's EdC, EdT, EdP.

In attempting to use that most basic of human drives, sex, or the glowing memory of it for those of us past the burning stage, most of the advertising for a particular scent seems to display or at least evoke sexual images IMO.

Some of the scents hit right in the Bullseye. Others get a 'maggies drawers' ( flag waved across the target by the pit crew indicating a miss of the target on military rifle ranges) for their effort.

Get the attention of the potential buyer, somehow link the advertisement to a possible pleasant sexual encounter/gratification/memory, and you may have a winner in whatever product you sell, from perfume to writing paper.

I will leave it for others to point out which scents hit and which miss in their particular opinion.

i say the color scheme is a big part in ads...juxtaposed with a quick motto or catch phrase...
like le male, the only one i remember...
the scent of modern masculinity...something like that..
with a clean blue ....light blue....
yeah

Yes the ads just do not make a statement that entices me to buy the frag. The ones that show the perfect bodies and faces, but they never smile. IMO a lot of ads are aimed at those that are not so much worried about the scent, but the image they dream it will bring them.

Absolutely I'm swayed by ads for scent.

M7 was the first fragrance I purchased solely because of the ad - more like, the furor caused by the full-frontal. It doesn't hurt that Mr. deCubber is very hot in those ads (both the US and the EU versions).

More likely than not, however, the ad turns me off - all the Kenneth Cole ads, for example.

What really bothers me is that they (the advertising people) think we're kind of stupid.
They like to copy themselves quite a bit too. For example: see the Montblanc magazine ad for Starwalker and the magazine ad for Bvlgari's Blv pour homme: they're almost the same thing.
It's ridiculous. Was it the same ad group who made those ads? Are they saving money? They must've done some kind of "marketing strategy" to see what sells and the went with the exact same format. And that's just one example of many!.
And what's up with Caron's PourUnHomme ad? It hasn't been changed that much in uhm ...40 years? (at least)
I doubt that their ads were(or are) realy effective (well maybe only in the 50s, 60s and early 70s) and the main reason it's still here it's because of the scent itself. (B&W background and botle, sometimes b&W background with colored bottle, other slight differences).

It felt good to rant a bit, thanks for the thread!

Exactly! That's why I thought that ad was so smart... (and, yeah, M. de Cubber looked pretty good, too).

I remember a conversation I once had with a local barber who recounted how sometimes, the reason that some of his customers complained about their haircut was not that their haircut didn't look like the photo of it on the Model in the window but that THEY didn't look like the MODEL after the haircut.

Sow's Ears will always long after Silk Purses though and there's always a bottle of Snake Oil around the corner.

At times. The 'Fume' in Perfume is just a smokescreen for our insecurities...

Paradoxically; To be the perfect 'Type' as advertised in the Fragrance Ads One really must know the difference...

Actually, it's "The essence of modern masculinity" that is the tagline for the recent Le Male ads.

Anyhoo, ads sometimes infuence me to buy a scent. The Burberry Brit ad was nice, and made me want to get the scent. Same goes for Gaultier² and the "I've got to have you" TV ad. Other times, the concept makes me want to buy the scent (as in the Bond No. 9 line).

But there's examples of fragrances where the juice is so bad, but the ad is so good. For example, there's the 2005 launch of the original Polo Black. The image from the ad was good, but the juice was so mediocre that it didn't fit the image. Fortunately, Ralph Lauren solved the image/juice conflict problem with Polo Double Black, but that's another story.

And of course, there's scents with ad campaigns and juice so bad that I wouldn't touch them with a 39 1/2 foot pole. (All the Curves fall under this category, obviously.)

Love the new Eternity campaign with models Karl Lindman and Doetzen Kroos. They are both very attractive people and exemplify the fragrance beautifully. I hope to see more of them both. It's good to see models again. I am so tired of seeing movie, TV, and music people in fashion ads. When is the last time you saw a model on the cover of a magazine? Think about it.

You don't want to think of me?


I don't mind ads. I don't see too many of them, but when I do, well, whatever. It's an ad. I either ignore it, try to pick out what specific marketing tactic they're using (hey, graduate business student, what can I say), or I get a laugh.

They aren't supposed to reflect every nuance of the scent. They're supposed to convince impressionable American consumers that wearing the scent will make them exactly what they want to be.

Apparently a lot of guys want to be an attractive, topless, scowling, wet Armani model on a beach...

Amouage Arcus and the corresponding ad, both in text and visual, are as accurate as any I've come across.

TNMA

By looking at the ads, amouage gold would be a right scent for me - just a regular and shy looking guy, not too stylish clothes.
Amouage Dia is designed for too stylish necktie users.