It’s an aspirational thing–consumers can buy into the celebrity’s lifestyle by wearing their fragrance. They can feel and smell like celebrities.
— Mary Ellen Lapsansky of The Fragrance Foundation, quoted in Celebrities fill up the fragrance counter.

That’s the standard explanation for the widespread appeal of celebrity fragrances, but I’ve always had a hard time with it. Your average “celebrity lifestyle” seems more likely to stand as a dire warning to be very careful what you wish for, or as an illustration of the age-old adage that money doesn’t buy happiness. Whatever your stance on the subject, Britney Spears, whose latest fragrance, Believe, is currently launching in stores, may have a hard time finding buyers for her lifestyle at the moment. So far this year, she has shaved her head, entered rehab, been accused of using a body double for her perfume ad, been mocked for her dismal performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, lost custody of her two children, and most recently, been hit with a sex tape scandal…

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