Lady Gaga Fame: fragrance review

With the Fame fragrance we witness a grossly missed chance and a Shannon entropy in one: whereas we could have had a Maleficent or at the very least a Pippi Longstocking, we get Cinderella ("please make the good prince notice me"), all bets off in a mathematical variability into the consumer's collective unconscious. Fame by Lady Gaga operates on a false signal, emitting something else than expected, breaking the communication circuit in half (visual cues, olfactory profile) and redirecting half of the message into the void. No wonder the Gaga perfume is the no.1 best-seller at the local Sephora as of this moment; perfume briefs these days are directed with a slew of semiotics experts and communication analysts behind them.

Lady Gaga Lady gaga FAME

via fanpop.com

The official blurb mentions the structure being built on three main accords, instead of the classic fragrance pyramid: dark accord, sensual accord and light accord. The fragrance, though not at all unpleasant (I bet if it was issued by another less "controversial" celebrity, we wouldn't expect so much to begin with and might be pleasantly surprised), ultimately runs the gamut of predictability: Fame by Gaga begins fresh grape-berry-apricot with more sweetness than anticipated from such a menacing presentation (the bottle looks like it is caught in fangs or in the pliers of a lifting machine at some enchanted factory making human replicas, someplace, an idea reinforced by the commercial), segueing into a "clean" layer of "white flowers" we've smelled in our fabric softener and plug-in home fragrance.

There's even the parting hint of smokiness for the allusion to mystery, as if something pretty needs an injection of something else too to register as coming from the meat-dress wearing celebrity or it wouldn't fit at all.

The nifty detail of the black juice inside which doesn't stain clothes or skin, as it instantly vaporizes transparent, isn't totally new either: Boudicca Wode (and not Boedicea the Victorious as I had erroneously mentioned before!) had explored the path first with her blue-tinged eau de parfum.

On the whole: Color me unimpressed.

Cool artwork though by Steven Klein. Can't knock that.

Lady Gaga In the Nude for "Fame": Perfume Ad

Strategically placed little men cover just the most racy tidbits on Lady Gaga's naked body on her perfume ad for her first celebrity scent, Fame.

 The photo was taken by famed photographer Steven Klein. Gaga wrote on her Twitter "I won't lie I'm a bit nervous. It's been a while since I've shared some work with you. But I'm so proud of Steven I, we really did not sleep!" The scent, which contains notes of incense, honey and apricot nectar, will hit stores in August.

I like it! A fun and more titillating version of Gulliver's Travels famous imagery of Lilliput.  

Lady Gaga's Celebrity Perfume: Smelling like an Expensive Hooker

On Tuesday, Feb. 14, Gaga posted: "Looking forward to this weekend. Shooting my parfum campaign and commercial with Steven Klein. Will be edited to a special song...shit." The tweet can be viewed at her official Twitter feed, which is followed by 19 million people. [source]

"Every celebrity whose “anybody” needs to have a perfume and as we all know, Lady Gaga’s scent will smell like an expensive hooker.
Competition to bottle Gaga is fierce, but the Swiss fragrance company Givaudan is working to collaborate with her when she releases her first scent, reportedly with the intent of blood and semen in the mix. Collaborating with names such as Lady Gaga would bring a boost to Givaudan’s fine-fragrance unit." [source]
The perfume will circulate later in 2012.

"Like an expensive hooker". Let's think about that for a moment: "like an expensive hooker". Out of all the possible briefs in the world of smell, you go for "expensive hooker"!
Reminds me of the following anecdotal dialogue attributed to George Bernand Shaw:

GBS: Madam, would you sleep with me for a million pounds?
Actress: My goodness, Well, I’d certainly think about it.
GBS: Would you sleep with me for a pound?
Actress: Certainly not! What kind of woman do you think I am?!
GBS: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.
(This dialogue is also attributed to Winston Churchill).

If you're set on hooking, why does the "expensive" adjective have anything to do with it???

pic via globaldebateblog.blogspot.com

A Monster Perfume for Lady Gaga

These days a couple of years of fame are enough to be on the radar for a celebrity scent, aka a perfume launched on the sheer power of the "of the moment" bouncing effect of a well-known name. Lady Gaga is THE name of the last couple of years, obviously (Has it been as long? You could have fooled me) and therefore the perfume deal couldn't be too far behind.
TMZ reports: “the fragrance company behind Gaga’s upcoming scent has filed trademark paperwork for the name ‘Monster’ — with a specific use of ‘perfumery.’” Is this what you had expected from a woman infamous for wearing raw meat? Apparently, raw meat will not feature as a note in the new fragrance by Coty Inc which will debut in spring 2012 (Will mince-meat pie filling do? I wonder...). But we could be hopeful: after all this would be something to really get us out of the zonked-out boredom range of most celebrity perfumes. If Gaga can't do it, no one can.

Lady Gaga and her celebrity scent

Can I just yawn my way out of all these celebo-scents? Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with a famous person having a fragrance out bearing their name and ugly (or pretty, as the case is) mug on the bottle, but so very often the juice inside is just swill... Not to mention it's often unlikely that there would be any class involved (see this) or innovation (see that) or at the very least a sense of continuity with the "brand? (see that, for Pete's sake).
At any rate, who else but Lady Gaga, the major pop culture phenomenon of the last -oh, how long was it, again?- years, to bring out a new celebrity fragrance. According to People, Gaga has signed a deal with Coty to launch her own fragrance, set to be in stores in spring 2012. The lady herself has been known to wear Chanel Gardenia. Go figure! Who knows how the new fragrance will smell like, but I guess we're to be greeted with news of "rock accords" and "jarring fashion sense chords" soon.
Wondering what will really set it apart? Perhaps much like the eponymous pop star's garments, it will require special staff to hold on and use for its designated purpose. Or something...

Photo of Lady Gaga in all her feathered glory via zimbio