Jacques Helleu, the artistic director of the fashion house, said it was only after seeing Knightley in the latest film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, in which she apparently wore no make-up and had her hair pinned back in a bun, that he noticed her unadorned beauty. “Her natural flaws were visible … Keira wore no make-up. She wore lengths of fabric as dresses. She had almost no hairstyle, just a little bun behind her head. She was a Cinderella in the making!…
Somewhere in my attic lies a binder with print ads for unisex perfumes. It’s a rather singular collection of images from fashion magazines that I used for my graduate thesis in 1997. I was interested in the way people were portrayed in those ads: the famous cK one and cK Be series, featuring young models shot in black and white, seemed to announce some sort of iconographical revolution in the world of perfumery. I even considered exploring the connection between images and fragrances, but I quickly decided it would only complicate things. Later I found out that someone else had actually taken up that challenge: Mariette Julien’s L’image publicitaire des parfums (1997) is the first study dedicated to the semiotics of perfume ads. It raises a very difficult question indeed: how does one visualize the essence of a perfume in a print ad?
The basic premise of the book is that perfume ads contain symbols and signs that belong to the realm of olfactory communication. When you compare perfumes and their respective ads — the author collected and analyzed 300 advertisements published between 1986 and 1996 — you end up with a whole set of ‘olfactive markers’: visual messages that in one way or another reflect the perfume’s odorant properties. A simple example of an olfactive marker is the blue sea in Davidoff’s Cool Water ads: besides triggering various iconographical associations (like the sense of freedom suggested by the wideness of the sea), it actually conveys the concept of ‘freshness’ that is promoted as a characteristic of the fragrance itself…
Calvin Klein's 3 story CK One perfume bottle filled with partying models opens today on Times Square for its 2 day run. Thanks to Guy for passing on the news that you can watch the spectacle live (link expired, sorry!) from the comfort of your own home.
As part of Calvin Klein’s efforts to renew CK One’s popularity with its target audience of 18-24 year olds, they have undertaken a new ad campaign, which started this past April with a series of print (see image at right) and television ads.
Next on the agenda…