A beautiful person slowly walks in a very picturesque direction. They are either completely nude or semi-nude; either way, the attire is more expensive than probably our entire month’s salary. They talk in a very seductive way and at the end, they reveal the strong perfume.
The scenario presented above is more or less the scenario for every perfume. The perfume commercials portray a decadent world where everything is lavish and extra. Even though some commercials try to break this cycle, most of them are dripping with wealth and fancy like rain. The commercials portray unrealistic beauty standards along with sexist ideas
Perfume commercials are so weird because they focus on advertising the brand image, associating a feeling that is bound to make you feel out of the world. They create a scenario far from reality like your wildest imagination.
Why are perfume commercials so weird?
We often see perfume commercials, and we wonder what is wrong with these people. Why are they male commercials like this? Perfume commercials promote their brand with unrealistic expectations and beauty. Their strategy is very different from the general ones.
We have tried to present some reasoning behind the making of these perfume commercials. Here we might get a hint of the perspective of the perfume manufacturers and the creative house.
Glitz and Glamour
The perfumes are luxury goods. They are not targeted to a general mass, so the advertisements are different from most of the products. The perfume brands need to promote the glitz and glamor of their products.
The advertisements create an alternate universe similar to your wildest imagination, where everything is aristocratic and perfect. They hire the most beautiful models or celebrities who promote the product in the most pompous setting possible.
Lack of Dialogue
The perfume commercials do not have any conversations in them. Most of the fragrance brands are global. They promote dreams, emotions, pictures, music – all of which don’t need a translation.
This lack of translation adds more depth and energy to the commercials, which comes off as weird. I mean, two people walking on a beach having a conversation, be it nude or not, is always less mysterious than two people walking to the beach without talking.
Now you add the seductive movement of the models, the whole suspense of what the product is, the ending where they reveal the outcome. It will be weird.
Recurring Theme
Perfumes are always promoted with seduction tagged with them. The creative departments of different brands follow the same strategy with a bit of change again and again. It’s either the combination of seduction, attraction with addiction, temptation, attraction with rebellion, seduction, attraction with passion, or something like this.
This, combined with an over-the-top setup and idea, ends up being weird. The themes most of the perfume brands follow are dreams, being everyone’s fantasy, being a part of something big and shady at the same time, unrealistic beauty.
Elite
The purpose behind creativity stems from the need to make the product more accessible to general people. This is why they look for different creative ideas to promote their products. However, perfumes are elite products.
They don’t let their products or advertisements do the bidding for them. They rely on the reputation of the brand. They promote the elitism of the products. They don’t even try to go for ideas that might make them seem or associate with the mass market.
Implication
The perfume brands don’t want to make or show a definite statement. This is why creative ideas which involve being funny or witty are off the table. They go for the same strategy of offering the royalty and seduction their perfumes are.
They want to be sensed, and that is the thought they put into their perfume advertisements. They do not add dialogues that state why they should go for the product.
They show you a person who is wearing the fragrance, and they offer their tagline. Like sometimes it’s everyone’s fantasy, Be the scent that gets you noticed, Be free with your bouquet.
Obsession
Have you seen the series – ‘Emily in Paris.’ If yes, please see if you can relate and if not, let us explain.
Emily is an American girl who went to work in a marketing agency in France. There she went to the making of a fragrance commercial.
Their model walked naked on a bridge surrounded by suited men who were all gazing at her. This is what they promote. The naked woman is the dream and fantasy of every man. It is not sexist because it’s the women’s dream to become the desire of men.
So this is what the perfume brand promotes. They are obsessed with their brand prestige and elitism. This is what they advertise. When you are marketing yourself as a desire or a fantasy, and when you think that you are everyone’s desire, then all the marketing efforts show that. They will always come as weird.
Announcement
Another reason is that these commercials, like the commercials of other products, are not made for the purpose of selling. Other commercial’s main target is to reach a mass audience and make it sell.
Perfume commercials are letting people know about the new product of the brand about their image. This is why the commercials are weird.
Do these commercials help in sales?
The fragrance advertisements rarely help them make sales. When I say rarely, I mean making huge sales like the other products. The reason behind this is when people like a scent, they stay with it. Still, then the fragrance industry spends an estimated amount of $800 million.
It is stated that the advertisements help them with other strategies. The advertisements always have someone famous in them. So, it gets the fragrance in the talk. Let us talk about the fragrance commercial of Brad Pitt in 2021 for Chanel. It cost about $7 million to make.
The fragrance was constantly trolled after that. so, what was the point? The advertisement earned more than nine million views. It fulfilled the marketing purpose since people talked about it a lot, be it in parody. The fragrance advertisements serve a long-term purpose than the other products.
What do perfume commercials present?
The perfume commercials try to persuade you to purchase their scent without you even smelling it first. their advertising tries to persuade you by storytelling. They tell a story that ties with your feelings by showing a world completely unrealistic.
They focus on feelings rather than the product first because a scent is an emotion. They intrigue their consumers by presenting a lifestyle.
Final Words
The perfume advertisements are weird. Even the makers acknowledge it. They know that they follow the same pompous and unrealistic beauty strategy to the point when sometimes it becomes a joke. The monotony of perfume advertisements has stood as a parody.
The perfume brands are looking to induce a bit more new concept and creativity into their ideas. They want to add the trends of beauty. However, we also need to understand that perfumes are select products .
Their advertisements strategy will always be different as they are not targeting a mass consumer with profit. Their sales results are tangible, and they know that. They promote the brand and its reputation in the commercials.
