Best Perfume Ads of all Time!

In the world of perfume ads, one stands alone.
For your consideration... mmm MANDOM.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8bqVL0VXrE

omg that was the best thing i ever saw.

Oh, the machismo of the 1970s! Thanks for posting.

Here is a recent ad for Poison. Monica Belluci is beautiful!

http://www.fragrantica.com/news/New-...lucci-512.html

What a gem!! Thanks Ody!!

It looks like he splashed about an ounce of juice on

I do like this one:

OMG Ody that is the best! The pipe

Chanel No5 with the stunning Carole Bouquet & the angst of perfume

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ4RK...eature=related

Vent Vert, probably the most perfect evocation of a scent I've seen in an ad:



Adding: what year is that Diorissimo ad? It's brilliant!

Ody,

What the heck is (was?) Mandom? I drew a blank in the BN Directory.

The gentleman must be wearing a mask and brandishing a gun in his other hand as they definitely filmed him in the midst of a major holdup..

Yeah, Mandom is something else. I did a little research. It was a very popular scent in Japan in the 1970s and 80s. The company expanded and changed, there is now a whole grooming line called "Mandom" but I suspect that vintage scent is lost in the mists of retro time...
Pipe, guns, no women in sight.... how romantic "All the world loves a lover..." ???

PS -- as usual, for pop culture items Wikipedia has a good entry.

I love that Vent Vert ad. It just makes me want to buy it blind!

Here is an ad that I copied from one of Merlino's posts. He uses a bit of it as his avatar, and I was always intrigued by the beauty of just that clipping. When I saw the full ad, I immediately felt that it did justice to Ruggles' short but (for me) very influential description of the abstract beauty of the scent. I am looking forward with great anticipation to sniffing it for the first time in the Guerlain boutique in just a few weeks!

"mmmm mandom ahitoa iuitoa tookoonoo saniako yezasakoa otookoono arigato ... ... mandom ..." Too funny!
He poured an entire bottle on him, I could smell him from my desk

I like this advertising by CK.
Very Freudist image, it tells a story like in a dream.

Trying to upload an ad!



On a bad day, maybe. And just what type is she and what statement was Guerlain making with the eye sockets of this vintage vamp? And yet, Guerlain proves here that we do not perceive expression solely through the eyes, as this lady's determined, reddish-black mouth attests. She's diffident and difficult, unsexy (unless one swoons over Joan Crawford in her tight-perm days). She isn't going to give up her phone number easily, no sir. And you can put that gun back in your pocket, Mister.

Mitsouko is, bien sur, formidable, but so is she, with her rigid little cap of hair, flared nostrils, and pursed lips. The lady is an unapproachable incongruence in today's terms (and also those of the last 40-odd years). Her style, however, is congruent with the ad's era; Joan Crawford sported this stiff look from the late 1930s through the 1940s, as did Rosalind Russell. It wouldn't fly today, and nor would Guerlain's delineating of women into demure, downcast blonde (L'Heure Bleue) and this paragon of steel-like remove. Neither woman appears to be capable of making naughty suggestion, although Mitsouko's brunette is immune to panic, which is a wonderful quality in any age.

By the way, lightgreen, I find the hands of the Diorissimo ad and the way they are clutching to be feminine. I might even extend this remark to the length and shape of the thighs, which have a slight feminine curve. However, I think this depicts a European male as opposed to a burly American stereotype.

That L'Heure Bleu ad is soooo glamorous.
And the greenie in me loves the Vent Vert ad.

For Freudian imagery, this is the classic. Chanel No. 5, 1979. Alluded to in a scene in the recent Watchmen movie. And my rumour du jour is that the final voice-over is Leonard Nimoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxRkocAPdJ0

NSFW (probably)

Ms Sophie Dahl for Opium.




http://www.sophie-dahl.com/images/full-size/opium.jpg

I love the Egoiste commercial Something about the music and the cries of Egoiste is just addicting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ5a2JH_BVE

I love this Fahrenheit commercial from the 80s - it suits the fragrance perfectly and it's also incredibly nostalgic for me to see. Great fragrance, amazing ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_hEGxtZwk

Awesome thread and selections!

The old TV ad for Hai Karate - too ridiculous for words but ultimately hilarious.

This is brilliant IMHO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ5a2JH_BVE

Here are a few that I love -

Novis2007, that ad never fails to crack me up. It's great!

I love the Miss Dior Chérie ad. Very sweet.

Orion, the empty eyes on Mitsouko lady make me think of a marble statue of a goddess. Someone cold, forbidding and untouchable (Hera? Athena?). Perhaps she represents a challenge. Perhaps she has the power to bestow favors, like a Greek goddess. The recipient must be worthy and prove his mettle. I do see the Joan Crawford reference (Mommy Dearest! ). It's those eyebrows that make her look so mean.

I like this ad for Lanvin's Oxygene...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfMtwdrAq0g

Caron has had so many beautiful ads for fragrance that I have always thought the "you'll get to hold the boobs ad" was sort of beneath them. I do love the Miss Dior Cherie ad. And I used to be a great fan of the "_____ is a Sinner ad" for Lanvin's My Sin. There were some beautiful Guerlain ads that I still recall, the "jazz age" Shalimar, the calm sort of yoga-esque Samsara ad and the Chamade ads come to mind, in fact the Guerlain ads used to truly inspire me to try the scents, back in the 70s the My sin ads, while memorable, made me think that My Sin was somehow inappropriate for me!

That is my other fave Chanel No5 ad. I remember watching it and all I thought at the time was "GLAMOUR"

This is a great thread! I could look at these ads all day. Still recovering from Mandom. Is that like a Kingdom but with a Man at the helm? LOL

What a great thread!
For anyone interested, the Diorissimo ad was created by a great commercial artist called Rene Gruau who did all the Dior ads in the fifties and sixties. I believe there is a book of his work that is out of print and very expensive.
The Chanel ad with Carole Bouquet and the swimming pool must have been very successful because it ran for years. Definite Helmut Newton influence and extremely artsy for American TV at the time.
The Charles Bronson ad immediately reminded me of "Lost in Translation".

I've always felt that this Paris ad, modeled by Lucie de la Falaise, was the perfect embodiment of the perfume it represented. De la Falaise's irises have been retouched to this icy light green, and it is they that originally drew me to this ad for a scent I do not particularly like. The ad is cool, elegant, very Parisian, and took my breath away with its implied romance, the romance one has with a place one has never visited.

This is Paris as ceremony and celebration--we all know that roses smell better in the City of Light and are not the staple of the twelve-for-ten supermarket special. The ad is ever so slightly surreal: Surely there are women who look like this, but they are not here. This is an American's dream idea of Paris, which left unadventured remains captured in this unimprovable image: chic, pink, and above the sensual fray that marks "lesser" fragrances.

I remember when the Égoïste commercial first aired some 20 years ago now. I was watching the US Open, or maybe Wimbledon (I remember tennis), and it seemed to air during every single commercial break. It was on just about all the time. And I didn't get it. I still don't get it. Honestly, it's kind of repulsive to me-- all those angry women shouting and slamming doors. Who'd want that?

I get a chuckle out of this faux ad directed by Roman Polanski and starring Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams:
http://www.dazeddigital.com/Fashion/...nline_Premiere

For print, I enjoy the classics, like this one for 4711:

these are some of my favorites,














I will find more I love in my saved photos, i have all my memories saved

I love this one!


I look forward to it.

And anything by Tom Ford.

Great thread, I love to watch those ads.

Oud Girl, I think the Egoiste commercial is a bit shocking and its double, both charming and chocking. And you never see the man, just all those beautiful women. And it is elegant too and at the same time too much; all those angry women all those clashing doors. I think that's the brilliance, And it's fun. Makes me laugh.

Its corny but I so love the Baz Lurman ad for Chanel , the guy in it is just breath taking but I guess thats not the point

Clair de lune makes me cry tho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTO4FHf8MBs

I think it's hilarious! And very French. And the zooming back from the clashing doors that exponentially multiply is cool to watch.

I love the hairy men in fragrance ads like that YSL one, and this one...

Pour Monsieur, I really like this Chanel commercial too. It's so über romantic.

...

Brielle, there was another Jerry Hall Opium ad that was spectacular. Was she the original Opium model?

Had forgotten that Rive Gauche ad. RG lipstick packaging! What a nice tie-in that was.

Here are some more

























Enjoy!

This ad...did it inspire the Geico So Easy A Caveman Can Do IT ads? Hmm...

I love to see these! One (don't have the picture) I loved on T.V. was for British Sterling, when a beautiful lady with long hair and wearing a flowing long dress rides down a hillside on a horse towards the camera, carrying British Sterling on a tray--so romantic!

Evyan

Agreed ! The 'caveman' from the Geico commercials!

I rememberd this image from decades back. Perfume=romance+elegance

But memory is funny. In my memory I saw the couple from the side instead of from behind her. And it took me a lot of searching to find it because I thought it had been for My Sin.

While I was searching I found a lot of other interesting ads. I think these are clever.



and funny

Wonderful thread. Thank you!
My favorite is also the Caron PuH with the couple--not the rugby player! It's so perfect for that scent. It's sensual, yet discreet enough and classy.
I also enjoy the opulant YSL Opium ads very much.
Tom Ford's ads for his own line do nothing for me but I like the YSL Rive Gauche and M7 print ads althoguh many have objections to them.
Another print ad I like (and I think embodies the scnet) is Caron's L'Anarchiste. The flame pictured in the ad is how this scent feels to me on my skin. It warms up...ignites...and goes woooshhhh...
As for TV spots, I don't think anything can beat Chanel No. 5 with Nicole Kidman.
RM

Not a popular opinion on this side, you'll find. Check the "worst fragrance ad" thread.

I've always liked the Sophie Dahl ad for... what was it? Opium? And the M7 ad that inspired such charming outbreaks of prudery in the MFD has, too. Both YSL's, come to think of it.

The Chanel 22 one on top looks a teensy bit decapitated to me.

That doggie's face is soooo sweet! I want to kiss him.

I don't normally care for a bit of blatant sex appeal in my ads, but I do like this.

Wish I could find my favorite online, but I haven't seen it.

It is in the Caron perfume book. Caron Coming to America. Just a huge grey oceanliner ship. Absolutely no models or actresses. It's very cool.

MANY of the older Caron ads are fantastic.

The Fendi ad with the statue is one also great.

I really like this particular ad... it makes me wish L'Heure Bleue made me feel the way the ad did, rather than just turning soapy on my skin.

Was this the Normandie?

I'm not drawn to nice looking bottles, pretty girls, flowers, etc.... They're boring. I find things that are vulgar and repulsive to be more interesting.

[QUOTE=Orion;1571221]

can't agree more on Lucie de la Falaise, her pose & eye stare are breathtaking, I adore all all her YSL poses on the runway or in the ads of the 90's, her smile & gaze are so bright & sunny in the other version of PARIS ad "attached".

that OPIUM ad is my all time favorite, love the mood , the mystrious opium color & love Kate's pose & leg...
I love also these attached Opiums, I prefer the vintage ones over the the recent ones...

here are the modern Opium ads...
& the modern version of Kate by Tom Ford...

Just a side comment here: I might be horribly wrong here but it seems to me that these days you cannot advertise perfume "on its own" - so the the focus is on the fragrance and fragrance alone. It appears that each ad must feature a celebrity, must sell the promise of a a lifestyle or at least have some female nudity (a cheap, unimaginative trick), and a nudity-centred shockvertisement is even better (are people really still genuinely shocked?). Are there any contemporary ads that feature female empowerment themes - and empowerment that would not use sexuality as means of control? I guess very few. I came across an advert for Jicky with a woman driving a car - this would be a good example of what I mean. I'm just bored with advertisements that play on the lowest instincts and insecurities (either male or female) - that's very little class for a product that claims to be a luxury and makes a pretence of elegance.

I personally love ads that paint a mood - the Dune ad (with a woman playing in the breeze on a beach), Kenzo Air pour homme (driving a car), the minimalist Aromatics Elixir ad and the Dior Eau Savage ad with the sailor. An exception to what I've said is the infamous Opium advert featuring Sophie Dahl - but I like it for being evocative of old painting masters.

I agree that "conventional" equals boring, most of the time. I just don't consider misogyny edgy.

Just remembered another ad that had me fascinated for the longest time: the CkOne video ad where a male and female models face are continually morphing into each other while he/she is looking straight into the camera. It's a powerful and slightly disturbing effect. Can't seem to find the ad now, though.
Edit: There we go. "Altered states" is the name of the commercial.

Those Dior ads are my absolute favourites. The illustrations are so simple and evocative. I wish more advertisers would use illustrations rather than photos. A good illustration can say so much more than a photograph. (Hey, I'm a copywriter by trade, what can I say? I've read too many Ogilvy books...)

My personal favourite is a funny one for Alan Cumming's fragrance. His tongue is so firmly in his cheek but the ad still works and the fragrance is great. Plus I love the silly silly names ("Cumming in a Bar" is the name of the soap in the range!). I know - I'm a big kid and I love puns. So sue me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SHFQ5V3kZE