I am sorry for my late blog. I have had this blog in my head for about a week but due to uni work and muchos crazy times. This has been the first chance I have got to really talk to you.
Three years ago I worked at the perfume shop. I loved this job more then life itself. When I started working there I knew nothing about Perfume at all apart from a couple of perfume brands. By the time I left the perfume shop to go to university. I knew more about perfume then I can ever imagine.
The one thing I was good at whilst working there, was when a customer was describing a perfume they had seen in an advert or on TV. I was good at working out which one they meant.
This was mainly because I watch way too much TV and I read so many celebrity magazines that my room could easily be wallpapered with them.
Now I have been out of the perfume world for three years I have found something that really grinds my gears...
Perfume adverts
Comedian Lee Mack has the best quote for why perfume adverts annoy me
Talking about French perfume adverts
"The French perfume adverts, they make so much sense don't they? I see her, I want her, she is what she is, she sees, but she is blind, she has legs but she has no legs, she is alive but she is dead, she is a woman but she is a monkey and I want her because she is what she is and she is a blind, dead, disabled monkey and I know that I want her Shalimar by Guerlain....What does it smell of?"
It is so true. Adverts can't tell you what the perfume smells of, it just gives you an uneducated guess.
Perfume advert tend to contain one of these codes and conventions
- A woman in a bed of flowers
- If it is Chanel then it is usually filmed by a Hollywood director
- If it is Jean Paul Gaultier it tends to be semi naked men and women
- A famous actress or model looking like the perfume is the only thing in existence.
- Mountains of fruit in the background
- A rock song soundtrack like Muse or the Yeah, Yeah,Yeahs
- A man jumping into water (Because that means its fresh...)
- and if there is not a woman swirling her self in waves of fabric then it tends not to be a perfume advert in my eyes.
- Unachievable beautiful models who look like they haven't ate for a year
- and if it is pink, purple or orange it is for girls or if it is blue, green, silver or brown it tends to be for a man.
I feel sorry for the guys and girls who still work in the industry who get attacked with at least 50 new perfumes and still have the 1000's to contend with every Christmas and in the middle of all that have to remember every advert just in case someone doesn't really know what perfume they want.
To all you Perfume workers I wish you a sane Christmas and to every person exposed to these adverts just be grateful you can switch over.
Chanel No 5 advert and Cool water advert.
