Perfume Ads

During the run up to Christmas adverts are everywhere, even more so than usual. Some people don't even consider it Christmas until they've seen the Coca Cola advert (myself included). My favourite type of advert to watch around Christmas is the perfume adverts, which are arguably some of the most beautiful adverts made and normally follow a romantic story line starring a gorgeous model/actress.

I wanted to compile a list of my favourite perfume adverts from over the years, some of them are shown all year round but many I remember seeing especially around Christmas time when the perfume houses go into marketing over drive.

Chance by Chanel

This advert is wonderfully youthful and colourful, the grainy YouTube video doesn't do it justice at all! This advert makes me want to visit Venice the blue colour of the water is gorgeous and I love the fact it looks really sun drenched. The narrative of this ad is very sweet and the music compliments it perfectly, I find it simple yet beautiful.

Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel featuring Keira Knightly

I'm not a massive Keira Knightly fan but I like this advert for Coco Mademoiselle. I think it's safe to say that Chanel make the best perfume adverts, I really like the way they always tell a story. Can I also just mention how much I love the red dress that features in this advert!

Flora by Gucci

I kind of love this advert even more now I know it was directed by Chris Cunningham whose work I studied at Uni. The lighting and colour palette used is nothing short of beautiful. I think the field of flowers is a simple idea but the effect is something really special and the haunting rendition of Donna Summer's I Feel Love tops it off perfectly.

Miss Dior Cherie by Dior

Sophia Coppola directed this one, probably the prettiest, girly perfume advert around, I can't get enough of the pastel colour palette! I can definitely see similarities with the colours used in this advert and those in Coppola's film Marie Antoinette which was all baby colours and pastel macaroons. The idea of Paris in the springtime gives this ad a very youthful feeling and in my opinion is perfectly suited to the perfume...much better than the current one staring Natalie Portman with the cringey 'J'taime' music!

J'Adore by Dior featuring Charlize Theron, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe

The newest perfume advert featured in this post, it was only released earlier on this year. I always found the J'adore ads pretty boring until this one came along, unlike the others I find this one spine-tingling good. The gold tones are stunning as is the setting in the Palace of Versailles. I think setting it backstage before a fashion show in the (romanticised) hustle and bustle is a fantastic idea and when paired with music by The Gossip makes this advert pretty special. Charlize Theron is just beautiful, that figure is amazing I can't believe how long her legs are! I can't decide if I like the fact they've included Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich and Grace Kelly I think it's a clever idea and very well executed, it really surprised me when I first saw it. This one is definitely my new favourite perfume ad!

Chanel No 5 featuring Audrey Tautou 

Whilst this isn't my favourite Chanel No 5 advert it is so gorgeous and well shot I think it deserves a mention. The current Chanel No.5 advert stars Audrey Tautou who in my opinion is the perfect Chanel poster girl. Like the other Chanel No.5 adverts I think this one is pretty timeless, yet also has a vintagey feeling of old world glamour. The colours used in this ad remind me a little bit of the Chance advert I mentioned earlier and I like that it is centred around travel.

Chanel No 5 featuring Nicole Kidman

Everyone remembers this one, I think it was and maybe still is the most expensive perfume ad of all time costing millions of dollars. It was directed by Baz Luhrmann and features La Lune by Claude Debussy as the soundtrack and is without question absolutely beautiful.

Chanel No 5 by Chanel

Yes I really am featuring a third Chanel No.5 advert, but this one has to be mentioned because it is my favourite perfume advert of all time and in my opinion is THE Christmas perfume advert. Estella Warren is  gorgeous and I love the Little Red Riding Hood spin. My favourite moment has to be when she opens the huge gold doors to reveal the Eiffel Tower in the snow and I remember stopping whatever I was doing to watch this advert when it came on TV. The music is very distinctive and sounds quite christmassy whilst researching this post I learnt it was actually composed by Danny Elfman, the man responsible for the Simpsons theme amongst others. There were a few different versions of this advert but this one is the most well known, I also like that it is less than a minute long especially as the more recent Chanel No.5 adverts are more like mini films.

Hmm... so perhaps this post should have been called 'The Best Chanel Perfume Ads', I have included more adverts than I had originally planned as I found it so hard to pick my favourites! I would love to know what your favourite perfume ads are, leave me a comment below!