Decoding fragrance adverts

Fragrance adverts are found in dozens of magazines, you just have to flick through Vogue or ELLE and you're bombarded with them, and often whizzed past as you search for an article. However it wasn't until today's seminar that I really focused on the adverts, placing them into categories and discussing the messages they hold.

Bottle

We started off by placing the adverts into 3 different piles regarding the bottle:

• Left: an object featuring in the photography, physically
• Middle: a combination, both physically in the photograph and digitally imposed
• Right: the bottle super imposed digitally
  

Does it work?

We then judged whether or not the advert fitted with the brand it was created for, for example we loved the "Stella" by Stella McCartney ad, however did not feel it really represented the brand. On the other hand, "Candy" by Prada, for example, we felt the brand was truly represented through the advert.

• Left: not representing the brand
• Middle: does represent the brand slightly, however could be represented in a better way
• Right: represents the brand well
  

4 categories

We also looked at 4 categories to distinguish different types of fragrance adverts:

• SENSUALITY & INDULGENCE - forbidden / seductive / exotic / passionate
• TRUST & HONESTY - purist / spiritual / authentic / natural
• HUMOUR & KITSCH - camp / wit / ironic / theatrical
• TRADITION & HERITAGE - romance / nostalgia / vintage / class

SENSUALITY & INDULGENCE

TRUST & HONESTY

 HUMOUR & KITSCH

TRADITION & HERITAGE

Can it be all 4?

Lastly, we categorised the images in different ways in relation to the product. We had to think outside the box and fit the advert into all 4 categories and used the "Stella" one as our example:

• SENSUALITY & INDULGENCE - lips, mouth open, perfume bottle held with teeth
• TRUST & HONESTY - simple, only two elements, something held in mouth
• HUMOUR & KITSCH - pop, loud, bold
• TRADITION & HERITAGE - sprayed with water, gold included, the shine

It was really interesting discussing and categorising a range of fragrance adverts in small groups and I look forward to the following lectures and seminars of this fascinating industry.