J'Adore Dior new 2011 commercial: An Unimaginative Concept

I am coming back after a brief comment on the teaser of the new film for Dior's J'Adore filmed exclusively in the 'Galerie des Glaces' at the 'Château de Versailles' and after my lukewarm reception of another anticipated commercial (Trésor Midnight Rose for Lancôme with Emma Watson). In the complete film for Dior, Charlize Theron struts once more in a gold dress (what else is new?), this time down the catwalk, being utterly gorgeous (of course, we knew that already since 2004 when she debuted as the face of the J'Adore Dior fragrance and weird thing...being greeted by kiss, gaze or envious greediness successively by Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich & Marilyn Monroe!

Of the three Kelly looks like she was literally "cut out" from To Catch a Thief being the most convincing (she was digitally added after all), Marlene looks like an impersonator in the familiar cheekbones-to-slice-cheese-with & stockings-under-a-jacket routine, while Marilyn is the poorest of them all in a justifiable punishment for hubris (watch those over-lipglossed lips in that reflective lighting), squeeling J'Adore in girly tones reminiscent of Gentlemen prefer Blondes; wait, though, wasn't she known for her predeliction for Chanel No.5? No matter, Dior (and LVMH who own them) is taking icons right and left and attributing them a penchant for the brand, probably because they can. They're crying for copyrights any chance they get, but they're using icons like there's no tomorrow.Cool, huh?

The weirdest thing though is this perfume commercial has been directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, a director famous for his grand scale scope, mastery of silence & landscape (watch L'Ours, Quest for Fire, Seven Years in Tibet), his breathtaking, very human love scenes (see Enemy at the Gates, L'Amant, or The Name of the Rose) and the recurring theme of civilization affecting the natural world. I see none of these here, so what was the point of hiring Annaud in the first place in this stage in his career? (He had directed several ad commercials at the end of 1960s and in the 1970s).

In many ways, a disappointment...


The music is "Heavy Cross" by Gossip

Dior J'Adore: New Ad Campaign & Teaser

Le Château de Versailles is the new mise en scène for the upcoming advertising campaign for Christian Dior's fragrance best-seller J'Adore. Starring Charlize Theron again, acclaimed director Jean-Jacques Annaud (L’Ours, L’Amant, Seven Years in Tibet…) shoots a new clip featuring our glamorous heroine (in dark sunglasses and a jacket with nothing underneath), which will be broadcasted in its entirety on September 4th. In the meantime, here is the teaser for your delectation.

Dior J'Adore: fragrance review & J'Adore Versions (L'Eau Cologne Florale, J'Adore L'Absolut, J'Adore L'Or) on the Market

Accessing the popularity stakes and artistic success of a bestseller is never an easy thing. Perhaps it's the competitors who speak most frankly about its cachet: As Thierry Wasser, head perfumer at Guerlain at the moment, revealed in an interview on Swiss television, "Every one of us wants to make the next J'Adore!"
The aphorism ~on a fragrance with a name that means "I LOVE it!"~ was meant to convey the ubiquitousness of the scent, its staggering approval by consumers from young to old. Such ubiquitousness in fact that its commercial's televised air-time 10 years after its introduction in 1999 has raised questions on a popular perfume forum about the reasons behind it!

The makings of a best-seller
You see, gone are the days of Chanel No.5 when commercials were running for the same scent for decades: Today the fast-paced churning out of fragrances means that the bombarding with advertising images changes dramatically from season to season with the latest and the glossiest catching page after page and air-minute after air-minute in an attempt to lure us into the Great New Thing. Alas, so very few times they deliver. Yet there is no question about Christian Dior's fragrance enduring presence in both the media and ~what's more important~ on the dressers and the bodies of countless women on the planet: Yes, by that token Dior's J'Adore is a modern classic!

Stating such a claim makes eyebrows raise on perfumistas' foreheads, accustomed as they are to the exclusive, the arcane, the unattainable or alternatively the vintage, the classic and the ultra-rare. But the beauty of perfumery is that one doesn't need to go up digging for Alexander the Great's grave (a task several worthy people have been unsuccessful at, its location forever unknown); one can find a good thing even almost on their doorstep (or in this case their local Sephora) and like Alexander's golden locks it is gilded and shiny with its "giraffe women" necklaces around the stem of the bottle and screaming with every drop of its jus "I'm covetable". A gorgeous face in Charlize Theron's shoes strutting her statuesque shape is challenging ~but also promising to~ every woman to become a living goddess! "Woman is an idol, and must be adorned to be adored," wrote Charles Baudelaire and Dior was quick to snatch the immortal line for their own purposes.

Pinkification: more to it than meets the eye

J'Adore (pronounced Za-DORH) clout however took an unexpected and fascinating path to form. Back in 1999 the fruity floral vogue was just catching on, as consumers tired of the acquatics and ozonics of the 90s and of the realisation that the dot com prodigies were not something to sustain the economy as foretold were searching for a little girliness, a little pinkiness ~even a reversion to the mental age of Barbie some would say! (and who can blame them in retrospect?) A recent article at The Guardian talks about the pinkification of our culture where beauty "gurus" emote in exalted girly-tones that could shutter crystal and have you screaming up the walls with devious and not so devious plans on assassinating the perpatrators of those auditory crimes. (parodies abound, so not all hope is foresaken). The cultural background of this phenomenon is vaster than the scope of those pages, yet a fragrance such as J'Adore managed to come aboard at the exact time when the wave of girlishness was gaining momentum. And we have to grugingly admit: Among all the girly fruity florals, J'Adore actually manages to inject a little womanly touch there too: It's not completely air-headed!
In Dior's portfolio it is something of a chasm, a no man's land where the classics (Miss Dior, Diorissimo, Eau Fraiche, Diorama, Diorling, Diorella, Dior-Dior and Dioressence) along with the established (Dune, Poison and some of the latter's flankers) veered off in favour of the modern specimens which are targeted to a different audience (Addict, Addict Shine, Forever and Ever etc.).

In a way J'Adore was the catalyst which ushered the pounding thumb of fruity florals not only chez Dior but along the widths and the breadths of the feminine fragrance market. Calice Becker, the perfumer behind J'Adore, is famous for her symphonic yet non-obese florals. Essentially linear, J'Adore begins and ends on a complicated yet quite fresh bouquet that oscillates between the velvety sheen of orchids and champaca with their sensuous air and the fruitier elements of rich plum, sprinkled with droplets of sweet citrus fruit, hints of greenery and a soupçon of violet & rose coquetry (ionones). The whole is underscored by cassis (a synthetic base very popular in the 80s, also used in Poême with which it shares an indefiniable vibe) with subtle woods. The longer the perfume stays on the more it projects that latter element. The eau de parfum's tenacity is indeed phenomenal and it manages to radiate even from the blotter for a while.

And when all is said and done, it smells nice. I wouldn't trail the Himalayan Route for it like I would with other fragrances and it's a little too sweet and ubiquitous for my personal tastes, but it's a round, feminine scent that attracts compliments. Think about how women have passed you by at the street, your nostrils quivered at their scent and you almost murmured j'adore....

Notes for Christian Dior J'Adore: Mandarin, champaca flowers, ivy, African orchid, rose, violet, Damascus plum, amaranth wood, blackberry musk

Dior J'Adore Special Editions and Flankers
The face of J'adore was initially Esthonian beauty Carmen Kaas, but it was Hollywood star Charlize Theron who really "clicked" and gave J'Adore an immense visual advantage.

J'Adore is available at every Dior counter everywhere, available in the following versions/flankers:

1) the original J'Adore Eau de Parfum concentration (1999) in the golden toned bottle depicted in the ads and reviewed above

2) the lighter and less plummy J'Adore Eau de Toilette (2002)  in the silvery-toned design (pictured on the right). In 2011 the eau de toilette concentration was re-orchestrated (due to changes in perfumery regulations) by Francois Demachy, giving it a sweeter and fresher appeal, and repackaged in the gold scheme packaging and presentation, only differentiated from the EDP by the notification on the packaging.

3) the magnificent, limited (and costlier) edition of J'Adore L'Absolu  (2007) a delightfully intense version of the classic favorite with Turkish rose, tuberose, and jasmine combine to make a truly pretty floral" (Eau de Parfum Absolute, created by Francois Demachy). A superior version of the formula, developed by Francois Demachy with premium floral essences.

4) the J'Adore L' Eau Cologne Florale  2009 (the bottle is in golden tones, but a little more slender), which reprises the floral theme with touches of lemony magnolia to render a very current modernisation of the brand. The range is complimented with ancilary body products and is often augmented with special editions that reprise the design of the bottle.

5) J'Adore L'Or is a essence de parfum edition launched in 2010 with the neck of the bottle in thin gold threads and the same amphora style body, available only in 40ml. It's an amped up and more expensive version of the eau de parfum with sweeter and headier florals and a more lasting and very perceptible vanilla base.

6) A limited edition from 2007 highlighting the jasmine note is J'Adore Le Jasmin, available in 100ml of alcohol-free eau de toilette for the summer. Longer, leaner amphora bottle, but otherwise same, with a box reading "summer fragrance" underneath the name. Not to be confused with the 2004 summer fragrance, which is encased in the familiar bottle that holds EDT or EDP, with the only difference being marked in the box ('summer fragrance').

The following limited editions are only different in the bottle presentation or visuals and do not bear a difference in the scent itself.
Special limited "anniversary" editions of J'Adore en Or come from 2004 and 2009 (for the 5 and 10 years of the market respectively); the former with curved drawn "lines" on the upper body of the matte gold bottle, the latter with a golden medallion with the initials CD hanging on a thread on the transparent glass familiar amphora-shaped body. A shimmery version called J'Adore Divinement d'Or (Gold Supreme) was issued in 2006 with gold shimmer suspended in the juice.

Photo by JeffWestboorke, pics via it's all about life blog

Optical scentsibilities: Neck Rings

Who isn't familiar with the Christian Dior advertisements for their feminine perfume J'adore? Before enlisting Charlize Theron and her fabulous physique, it was Carmen Kass and her graceful East European neck who adorned the pages of glossies. The gold hoops round her neck were shining much like those on the long, giraffe-like top half of the bottle iteself, elongating it, giving it a graceful line upwards. Very innovative, right?

And yet, when one looks back on advertisments from a previous era, one sees that that this is not the case. In fact, Jean Desprez, a perfumer who launched his own creations and not under the wing of another house ~a practice unusual for the second half of the 20th century~ had used this idea for his classic oriental Bal a Versailles, back in the 1960s. The advertisment of this one is more sketchy and less realistic, but the idea remains the same. The rings around the neck, the elongated line that hints at vulnerability. An idea of woman as a constricted being who is subject to the desires of some unattainable ideal, inflicted by men. One could write a whole treatise on this alone! However to revert to more arty rather than feminist issues, every little trait of the two images conspires to show that they both drew their inspiration from yet another source; a source much more in the real world than one would anticipate.

None other than the constrictive beauty ritual of the Giraffe Women of Thailand. In a practice that rivals that of the bound feet of Chinese women (Google the term only if you're brave), those women put rings around their necks producing an effect that although more of an optical illusion than real elongating, it has the unfortunate characteristic of seriously oppressing the collarbones and ribs into an unnatural shape in the long run.
Everything in the name of an unrealistic, unattainable beauty? Putting on perfume is so much easier comparatively. The rest is up to you...as always.

Pics of ads from parfumdepub, pic of giraffe woman from paradise tour.com

Perfume advertising 4: discrepancies? (multimedia clips)

Exploring the avenues of perfume advertising, especially in commercials to be viewed on TV, one shapes a particular assumption of how something would smell, coaxed by the imagery and setting of the commercial. Often there is some discrepancy witnessed between what is expected and the actual olfactory experience. Especially so when there are famous faces or egeries involved fronting the perfume.

On a nostalgic trip down memory line, Soir de Paris in a very old commercial, from 1958 to be exact, shows us the rapport between jus and image that existed initially. Soir de Paris by Bourjois is known as Evening in Paris in Anglophone cultures and the olfactory profile is a very refined aldehydic floral that has a touch of the Parisian melancholy and sense of glamour. In its vintage form it stood as a very elegant and lovely representation of everything that joyful Paris evoked in the imagination of countless American women, especially after having seen the classic film "An American in Paris".
Today, the Vermont Country Store is touting its stock of original Soir de Paris and everyone may have a slice of that glorious imagery of French women preparing for a Parisian outing in their strapless gowns and dainty high-heels. Watch the clip clicking here

Those days are over however. Very soon the visual aspect of a commercial went on to a completely different independent track, often creating images that do not correspond to the olfactory response of uncorking a perfume. Case in point is the following commercial for Poison from the mid 80s , when this perfume grenade initially launched to be the object of derision, huge sales and eventually legend. In the commercial a lady dressed in tailored clothes in the purple hues of the perfume’s bottle is sitting head tilted romantically, drapes being drawn as if to signify a new start, a revelation or a concealmentWatch the clip clicking here
Suffice to say that the bombastic juice that lurks inside that insidious purple bottle is radically different to what one might think watching those visuals. A potent, venomous elixir of sexual emancipation and witch-like power, it manages to make lovers and haters and nothing in between. Sadly this is hard to find today in a world in which the visual has become significantly more aggressive, while the olfactory has become astoundingly tamer. Contrast the above with the recent black panther commercial for Christian Dior Pure Poison and smell the respective jus and you will know what I mean.

Romantic images however do have a power on their own, corresponding or not to the perfume’s aroma. Such a romantic commercial is one of my personal favourites from the early 90s (around 1990-1992) for LouLou by Cacharel. I have already elaborated on what makes LouLou the perfume so evocative for me, but the advertising has played a major part in this as well, being inspired by Louise Brooks and her Lulu role in Pabst's film. The bluish tones of the film, paired with the insouciance of the young girl who talks to the camera is endearing and makes us view the perfume under the lens of an insouciant, unaffected girlish seduction. Which is not far off the mark of the perfume’s intent.
Watch the clip clicking here

The following commercial for Champs Elysees by Guerlain however is again in contrast to the jus inside. Shot in black and white on the eponymous Parisian street with gorgeous Sophie Marceau as the protagonist who exits a car stopping abruptly taking with her a bouquet of roses and a sac voyage to march off angrily and then self-awardingly on the famous street, it is too cinephile and hinting at a background story.
The effect is greatly augmented because it features one of the songs that would best illustrate an insinuating and dark perfume: Glory B0x by Portishead. The music is so suggestive that it would be great underscoring trully dark, biting frags such as Poivre by Caron or Ambre Sultan by Lutens. The tagline of “life is best when you write the script by yourself” is meant to evoke exactly a cinematic reference and independence. However the jus of Champs Elysees is oblivious to such scheming and trails off in candied blackcurrant buds and mimosas tumbling out of its sunny coloured bottle. Too tame by half...Watch the clip clicking here

To finish this exploration of the correspondence between visual image and perfume composition, two last examples. One is of a commercial capturing the essence of the perfume, that of Sicily by Giuseppe Tornatore featuring the beautiful, expressive as a weeping widow Monica Belluci, an uber-woman if there ever was one. A perfume that is indeed quiet, but not undistinctive; cosy, old fashioned in its way, soapy like the white linen of a neorealistic film’s heroine. It did not manage to be a best-seller, but the connection between what seems to be a very Mediterranean concept and its scent is masterfully accomplishedWatch the clip clicking here

And then there is the aggressive luxe of a baroque mansion in which strides stripping all the while the statuesque Charlize Theron for Dior’s J’adore. Although the presentation and imagery is one of opulence, J’adore is no more than a nicely put floral with violet, orchid and rose and scattered fruity touches on top. Certainly not the super exclusive thing alluded to. But a brand of a reputation for luxury and with a couture show to support had to go to extravagant lengths to cement the opulent touch in our minds. And Charlize’s commercial was indeed very successful in that regard. Because who wouldn’t want to emulate her? Watch the clip clicking here

Next post will be really funny, guaranteed!