THE SEXUALISATION OF FRAGRANCE ADVERTISEMENT
Fragrance, an industry worth billions, is one of the largest in market today and is a sector in the world of advertisement that we are constantly confronted with, whether it be on our television screens, social media, billboards or in magazines. Because my upcoming module focuses on fragrance, I have decided to address a universal conversation and in some way, a problem, that circulates around this industry - the sexualisation of fragrance; during my research on this topic I noticed that the two key areas that this applies to are: 1) the visual advertisements for fragrance products, and 2) the fragrance bottles designed for the perfume itself.
Is this industry simply sexist?
In all fairness, selling perfume is quite a tough mission, because it is quite literally selling something that you cannot see, or more importantly, smell, without having the product in front of you. Resultingly, advertising fragrance products heavily relies on communicating a concept. Because scent is intrinsically related to sexual attraction, lust and desire, almost every perfume brand advertisement you see today relies on sex to market themselves. Of course it psychologically makes sense to link the product to flirtation and romance, but I think the controversy lies between hypersexualizing women on an extreme scale and making men dominant in this image, overall dehumanising women and making them less empowered. The typical perfume adverts we are familiar with today literally objectify our gender, and surprisingly, it seems that it is the higher-end brands that we look up to as superior and iconic are those that do this the most.
It seems that there is almost a set structure to the repetitive fragrance ads produced over the past few years, all based around the male gaze theory; women, famous or not, appear posing sexually, often undressed or presented with some degree of exposure, in position of submission and capitulation, often being dominated by a male, and in a situation that is leading to a heavily sexual scenario or even subtly, sexual abuse. For example, take the advertisements for 'Daisy' by Marc Jacobs or 'Unforgivable Woman' by P. Diddy. The bottles designed to sell these fragrances in, as you have probably noticed, tend to replicate the 'perfect' or 'ideal' image of the female body - curvy, with a slim waist and a large chest. Take Kim Kardashian's 'KKW fragrance' or Jean Paul Gaultier, for example - all well known for their containers. In what way does this exactly promote women...? Whilst in The Museum of Sex in New York last week I saw a collection of perfume bottles replicating the female figure and a variety of old-fashioned fragrance adverts which promote women as sexual objects, which is what caused me to explore and address this topic (see images below). I noticed how much of an ongoing trend this is in the industry and found it rather shocking.
This area of the industry is something I take strong interest in due to the psychological element behind the all the visuals. The overdone sexualised adverts are so abundant now that it has created a block in the market, and so I think something must change here very soon to switch up the way perfumes are sold to us meanwhile changing this association of fragrance and sex that we have all adapted. In my own study I want to explore how this focus can be transformed into something else.
Is this industry simply sexist?
In all fairness, selling perfume is quite a tough mission, because it is quite literally selling something that you cannot see, or more importantly, smell, without having the product in front of you. Resultingly, advertising fragrance products heavily relies on communicating a concept. Because scent is intrinsically related to sexual attraction, lust and desire, almost every perfume brand advertisement you see today relies on sex to market themselves. Of course it psychologically makes sense to link the product to flirtation and romance, but I think the controversy lies between hypersexualizing women on an extreme scale and making men dominant in this image, overall dehumanising women and making them less empowered. The typical perfume adverts we are familiar with today literally objectify our gender, and surprisingly, it seems that it is the higher-end brands that we look up to as superior and iconic are those that do this the most.
It seems that there is almost a set structure to the repetitive fragrance ads produced over the past few years, all based around the male gaze theory; women, famous or not, appear posing sexually, often undressed or presented with some degree of exposure, in position of submission and capitulation, often being dominated by a male, and in a situation that is leading to a heavily sexual scenario or even subtly, sexual abuse. For example, take the advertisements for 'Daisy' by Marc Jacobs or 'Unforgivable Woman' by P. Diddy. The bottles designed to sell these fragrances in, as you have probably noticed, tend to replicate the 'perfect' or 'ideal' image of the female body - curvy, with a slim waist and a large chest. Take Kim Kardashian's 'KKW fragrance' or Jean Paul Gaultier, for example - all well known for their containers. In what way does this exactly promote women...? Whilst in The Museum of Sex in New York last week I saw a collection of perfume bottles replicating the female figure and a variety of old-fashioned fragrance adverts which promote women as sexual objects, which is what caused me to explore and address this topic (see images below). I noticed how much of an ongoing trend this is in the industry and found it rather shocking.
This area of the industry is something I take strong interest in due to the psychological element behind the all the visuals. The overdone sexualised adverts are so abundant now that it has created a block in the market, and so I think something must change here very soon to switch up the way perfumes are sold to us meanwhile changing this association of fragrance and sex that we have all adapted. In my own study I want to explore how this focus can be transformed into something else.
Examples of existing sexual fragrance adverts and bottles.
My own images of sexual fragrance bottles and advertisements in The Museum of Sex, NYC.
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