06 Feb

Makes scents

It’s happened.
It’s finally happened. For the first time in my life. A fragrance ad that makes sense.

For the entirety of my three-and-a-bit decades on this planet, all I’ve known – when it comes to perfume or aftershave ads – is the obscure: black and white/sepia shots of people rolling on beaches, people dressed as sailors, bizarre monologues (see Johnny Depp – Dior), celebrities with no link to the fragrance (Charlize Theron, Brad Pitt, Natalie Portman).

Not once have any of these ads made me want to buy the fragrance on offer. If anything they’ve put me off.
I’ve only ever bought afteshave/cologne based on smelling it in the shop selling it.

Then, at last, I see an aftershave/cologne ad for Issey Miyake that makes sense.
This isn’t the one I saw, but it’s from the same campaign and follows the same basic premise:

It’s not obscure, it’s not a piece of art, it’s not impossible to decipher: it just tells you the ingredients in the aftershave – what you’re going to smell like.

The ad I saw showed a lime rolling into cinammon sticks, then falling into a bunch of lemons (what is the collective term for lemons? Certainly not ‘bunch’. A shenanigan of lemons? A grenache of lemons?).
It actually made me want the fragrance. I like citrusy aftershaves.
Never before has a fragrance ad made me want the fragrance, because they’ve usually been a pile of obscure, artistic, self-indulgent wank.

Well done, Issey Miyake – you’ve actually produced an ad that makes sense and sells the product.

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