It doesn't matter that Dior's Miss Dior perfume is a travesty on a thousand levels (the fragrance started out being called Miss Dior Cherie, it changed its formula into being unrecognizable, it took the name of the original 1947 Miss Dior perfume confusing consumers etc. etc; click on Miss Dior vs Miss Dior Cherie differences article to find out the whole truth). A new campaign is a new campaign nevertheless (starring Natalie Portman again, the premise for the new, more "serious" love angle they're pitching) and it will have tongues wagging, no doubt. Especially since Sofia Coppola is directing (i.e. the woman who was responsible for the delightful and oh-so-fun original Miss Dior Cherie campaign with a flirty Marina Linchuk set to Bardot's "Moi, je joue" tune years ago).
Here are the teasers, the whole commercial will air on February 24th.
I assume the line "Christian Dior said" refers to the Dior fragrances brand and not the actual designer...(who had been dead long before Miss Dior (Cherie) was even a spermatic thought at anyone's mind). Ah well, chalk it up into harmless fluff and enjoy the visuals.
"When he takes me in his hands...
...and whispers love to me...
...everything's lovely. It's him for me and me for him...
...all our lives, and it's so real what I feel, that's why."
The teasers are code-named "the fountain" (la fontaine), "the car ride" (la voiture), "the kiss" (le baiser) and "the garden" (le jardin).
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Dear Shrine
ReplyDeleteI'm confused!
Are you saying that Cherie is still being marketed as Miss Dior (straight) as it were? Is this campaign about to reinforce that?
Here in Old London Town, that whole unhappy episode seemed to have been disposed of and frosted and embossed glass bottles containing a resemblance of the original (not 'originale') perfume have reappeared.
As has the ghastly pink stuff under the guise of 'Ma Cheire'.
If ever a company mishandled its own product's brand so unhappily I've yet to see it.
If it leaves the like of the Dandy, who takes a keen interest in such things, then heaven help the poor consumer who doesn't spend their days flicking through perfumed pages.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
theperfumeddandy.com
PD,
ReplyDeleteit's been a while since I last saw a perfume counter at the UK, but the official Dior site has this following page on the matter, in which it looks like the Miss Dior (stat) is now/still official name for the 2011 reformulated Miss Dior Cherie (do consult my link on this whole confusion if you have some time).
Miss Dior page on the Dior site
If you move the cursor to the right you will see the original 1947 (well, reformulated too, but you know what I mean) Miss Dior with the caption extrait de parfum/eau de toilette "original/originale" respectively (and so it is on the perfume bottle labels as well).
As you so succinctly point out, if these intricacies escape the attention span of a perfume obsessive such as ourselves, imagine the confusion of the average perfume buyer. Which is why Dior has lost much of its cachet with perfume fans over the years...(sad, I know)
The perfume campaign DOES reinforce that via overexposure to every medium possible (TV, glossies, web etc). Most assuredly!
To be clearer:
ReplyDeleteI mean that both formulas (two completely different perfumes) do circulate (one in a much more esoteric circuit, granted) with the exact same name. Which is mind-boggling!
I love Miss Dior but not the cherie!
ReplyDeleteShe's not that dear to anyone...
ReplyDeleteThe teasters are sweet, but the whole story is gettig so tediuos to follow, and the people so reluctant to test that not even Sofia Coppol cna get them out of the mess.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't Coppola come up with something more L'Original than the La Dolce Vita inspired fountain scene? I do like the ads, but the girl in a fountain thing has been done enough already.
ReplyDeleteBarbara,
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean! :-D
(To be 100% honest, I never liked the Cherie when it came out, but at least it had character. Now it's neutered; pretty but designed to be inoffensive)
C,
ReplyDeletethat's probably why they dropped the "cherie" from the name! :-D
Lyubov,
ReplyDeleteyou have an excellent point, it's deja vu mostly (while Sofia's first commercial was not!). All this too romantic stuff gets tedious after a while. Though let's see what happens when the whole thing airs.
One thing I'm pretty sure is those campaigns are not targeting us; they're targeting new customers who will be lured in via pretty, glam images and star cachet. They won't mind the confusion because they don't know any better. it's sad that they will never do (won't be given a chance), now that everything is changed chez Dior...
Anon,
ReplyDeletethey're heavily going after stereotypes: the suave and somewhat rebellious/sinister man in La Piscine (for Eau Sauvage), the playful insouciant Bardot-like debutante from And God Created Woman (for Addict flankers), and of course La Dolce Vita for Miss Dior (Cherie). Talk about originality! If Delon is seriously engaged by the brand I'm waiting till they try to exploit Plein Soleil next!
It doesn't impress me any more; LVMH are obviously thinking the way movie makers are thinking, making all those endless (and often atrocious) remakes; the 20-somethings haven't seen the original, so it all looks bright and new to them! And alas, as I said above, this is the segment that is being targeted: early 20s. Which isn't bad in itself (the very young can be catered for and should be), it's just that I find they're being deprecated and looked down on (the way they're being catered for as if they don't know better and don't deserve better).
In her defense, I don't think S.Coppola has anything to do with the actual script and concept; I think that's decided from further above in the Dior/MVMH echelons. She's the director, not the art director of the brand or the screenwriter for the commercial. The most she might have had a hand in the storyboards, which is natural due to the realities of filmmaking.
Guess they can afford this ad campaign with all the money they saved by turning their perfumes into crap (sorry). It's so sad about their formulae. And it's also neither romantic nor luxe.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeletecan't argue with that. No need to apologize.
Luxury has lost its luster, I suppose. Dana Thomas after all said it all...
Honestly, I love Ms.Portman as an actress. But she is never a paragon of relaxedness or that kind of innocent eroticism I would combine with 'Miss' or 'rose'. She always comes over as ambitious and highly wired...Those clips are full of subliminal contrasting messages and she looks, as if she for one didn't believe the story. Unsettling.
ReplyDeleteA,
ReplyDeletegood point! She has worked hard to give a more "tortured" nuance to her persona after all.
Let's see what happens when the whole commercial airs. ;-)