Tuesday, July 17, 2012

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.  


14 comments:

  1. I'll say it now, I love the absurd weirdness of it. It has been a long time since I saw a mainstream perfume advertisement for women that was wonderfully bizarre, I'll take that over the next romantic/sexed up fantasy.

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  2. jen,

    absolutely! Love the fantastical element in it! At least something that is not same old, same old.

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  3. brie22:03

    There was a bit of "hoop-la" about this one on other blogs. And some odd sounding notes listed (can't remember off hand now but they sounded like marketing conceptions). Curious as to how it smells. It could be quite lovely,right? I guess sometimes we need to look beyond our preconceived notions in order to appreciate perfume-no matter who endorses it or makes it.

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  4. Brie,

    the notes are in the previous posts I made on this. It is automatically linked on You Might Also Like widget underneath the post, or you can consult:
    http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.gr/2012/06/lady-gaga-fame-black-fluid-new-perfume.html

    I also do believe that they're a marketing fantasy. Duh.
    But I'm still interested in smelling it anyway! If anyone in the celebrity business might have a "different" perfume out that would be Gaga. Right?

    Hoopla as in negativity? But why? This is original, imaginative, well executed and not relying on raw sex to sell.
    I suppose anything non mainstream "romantic"/fun and upbeat is considered racy by a big segment of the market. Hence the inundation with sameness in advertising. But it makes me sad, personally.

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  5. brie11:15

    I guess the hoopla was about the fact that it is yet another celebrity scent and the names of the notes were obvious marketing ploys. but I agree with you..it could be a great fragrance and if I liked it I would wear it. I grew up loving and wearing the "mainstream" stuff in the 70s and 80s (before niche and indie existed along with the outrageous prices!). I think this is one of the reasons Chandler Burr created his scent series (I participated in the first one and was not disappointed). He wants to present the fragrance for itself so that perfume lovers can appreciate the juice without any prejudice or preconceived ideas about it. Makes sense to me :)

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  6. Your notes did not include the blood (from Lady Gaga herself) and semen that are supposed to be in each bottle so that we can literally "wear" her! As for the image, I love all those little creepy crawly men all over her odalisque body. But I think she REALLY could have come up with a better name. "Fame" seems so trite.

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  7. Brie,

    ah, yes. I can see that. Though it's always said and sometimes (OK, OK, rarely) we're pleasantly surprised.

    I agree that there is a point in the Chandler exercise. That's what his exhibition entails, after all.

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  8. Maggie,

    thanks for commenting!

    The blood and semen initial "announcement" had been reported a long time ago on this link:
    http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.gr/2012/02/lady-gagas-celebrity-perfume-smelling.html

    But eventually the "plan" was dropped in favor of the (equally weird) notes mentioned in the other, later post:
    http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.gr/2012/06/lady-gaga-fame-black-fluid-new-perfume.html

    Still, something tells me it will not smell of any of those things. But I'm interested in finding out all the same.

    Kinda think "fame" is all it's about for Gaga and she considers that "making it" is as transient as perfume and therefore fit for it. Or at least my -possibly deranged imagination- is thinking that. They'd have to use a non-copyrighted name that would sound good in many languages too, and just how many of those are left? ;-)

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  9. MariaA09:11

    Well the photo is great! The bottle has been commented, the name has been talked about, the notes remain to be seen or better sniffed to make our judgement.
    I hope it ends up being good as like you say if she doesn't come up with something good no celebrity ever will!

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  10. M,

    the photo is really good, I can't wait to see the full commercial. I like imaginative takes. When there's too much rubbing oneself and too much amorous disposition towards unattainable beaux it tends to bore me...

    Who knows, this might be really good. Let's cross our fingers. Lovely by SJP was really good and a couple of others (Madonna's, Queen Latifa's etc) are quite likable, so why not?

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  11. Miss Heliotrope07:06

    It would be amusing if you got one of the little men hanging (by the neck? or pick a body part - ) from the bottle as well.

    Celebrity scent ads seem so similar that the difference here seems more significant.

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  12. Thanks for updating me! But now I'm disappointed they nixed the idea of blood and semen, it would have worked well with the steak dress . . .

    The black juice that sprays colorless is pretty nifty, but what does the name, the black juice, those creepy crawly men and that ugly spearhead bottle have to do with one another? It's all a bit too disjointed, while Lady Gaga herself is such a clear concept. I see her as falling somewhere between Madonna and Bjork and have higher expectations of her. She needs that team that put together the l'Odysee Cartier campaign!

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  13. Maggie,

    LOL, indeed it would have. But I seriously doubted those claims from the very start. They make for sensationalist marketing (blood! semen! sex and violence!) but they almost never make it into the olfactory reality, especially for a scent that would be expected to actually sell bottles.
    I don't really put much faith in too imaginative fantasy notes either, but still it remains to be seen. :/

    Cohesiveness isn't the project's strong suit, you have a valid point, but then again Cartier's campaign is much more sophisticated and luxe for Gaga's audience. And in this instance the crucial factor I believe is the audience buying the stuff, not the artist herself. Personally I like the ad, I don't particularly like the bottle.

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  14. C,

    ha, they have had one hang from a nipple but then it would be axed! A man hanging from the bottle though might be unpractical for two reasons: obscuring the actual product and implying that the product alone can do it all, when the industry wants to project the idea that the person carrying the liquid does the attracting part (in this case, seeing oneself as a reflected vision of Gaga herself...am I sounding too much like Bataille perhaps now? Sorry)

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