Prada Candy

The wave of irrelevant and run-of-the-mill fragrance ads that has hit us during this past decade simply baffles me. I do not mean to generalize but they all seem extremely impersonal to me. It has either been the Mediterranean /ocean/sculptural bodies combination (for example see: D&G – Light Blue) or the “I´m so pretty, look at me I´m in my underwear” type of ads (for example see: Lancôme Hypnôse Senses). It is understandable we are greeted with unoriginal commercials considering the amount of unoriginal flankers fragrance houses have been putting out lately.

I say impersonal because, from my point of view, one’s personality should be one’s most treasured quality. This is why I would like to see more fragrance ads portraying this idea. More campaigns like the one Prada has commissioned for (yes, another flanker) Candy L’Eau. We get three one-minute movies by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (See films: The Fantastic Mr.Fox or The Darjeeling Limited for examples of their previous collaborations) starring Léa Seydoux (who was also the face for the original Candy campaign). I was surprised to see how total focus is given to her character “Candy” and her personality. We see a strong and, to a certain extent, innocent woman by the way she flirts with and reels in two men at the same time.

I truly believe this is how we should be selling perfume. Selling an idea, a personality and not only muscled and worked-on bodies which seems a bit inconsequential. Take a look at Cacharel Lou Lou and Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche for examples of great perfume ads.