Perfume adverts are inherently silly things.
You can throw as much money, cool images and glitter at something, but at the end of the day, what you’re trying to do, is sell a smell.
And unfortunately for advertisers, smell-o-vision died a death in the 1960s.
So instead, we now get adverts that try and go for… something memorable, rather than anything that tells us what the blasted product smells like.
You might not know what Bleu de Chanel smells like (woody and aromatic and well worth your time), but you bloody well remember “I’m not going to be the person I’m expected to be anymore.”
That, is a successful advert.
So when the folk at KENZO (a somewhat high end fashion retailer, good for one off gifts for your too cool for school loved ones) need to sell their new fragrance, KENZO, they decided to draft Spike Jonze for an advert.
As in “I’m best mates with Bjork, did the Beastie Boys ‘Sabotage’ video and shot Kanye and Jay Z smashing up a car for Otis” Spike Jonze.
What happens when you let one of the most talented filmmakers today shoot a perfume advert? Well, we’ve seen this video seven times now and we’re still not sure.
Why don’t you watch it and tell us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABz2m0olmPg
Drafting in The Leftovers actress Margaret Qualley, Jonze takes the perfume advert to this logical conclusion in “wtf” stakes and we’re entirely here for it.
Four minutes of someone krumping and body pumping around a gallery for a fragrance that we still don’t know the price of. Ace.
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