COMPARATIVE ESSAY: SO FAR...

A comparison of how women are represented in fragrance advertisement from the 1920s, 1960s and 2013

Bourjois Mais Oui (1920s, France)

My first advertisement for ‘Boujois Mais Ouis’ creates a representation of a woman who is glamorous, elegant and upper class.

By targeting the consumer it says at the top ‘it’s you’ which shows aspiration and how it can drag the audience into buying the perfume. The brand messages stem partly from the French name as although Elizabeth Arden is an American brand, a French name connotes sexiness, glamour and sophistication.

This advert is also very feminine by putting the background at a pastel pink.

This advert is from the 1920s, I chose this advert because it targets the consumer to share the fantasy of the woman by buying this perfume.

The big hair, tiny waists and the out-going dresses are very elegant which is saying that if you buy the perfume you will be shown as a very elegant woman and of high class.

Dana Ambush (print, 1965)

This advert contrasts with the Bourjois advert because the women in the adverts are represented in different ways. The word ‘ambush’ positions the woman as a sexual predator who can trap a man into falling for her.

The word ‘ambush’ means to make a surprise attack on someone or something from a concealed position and the graphics clearly express an ambush. On a denotive level, the woman is represented as hiding behind the statue in a concealed position.

On a connative level, by hiding behind the statue she represents herself as a warrior in the art of war (that is, the battle to seduce a man and win his heart) as she intends to trap men through her beauty; one of her weapons is her fragrance which is her lure. This shows that if you wear this fragrance you will embody the qualities of this woman and gain self-confidence.

The statue the woman is hiding behind is the Greek Goddess of victory, Nike. This ties in with the slogan ‘from the goddess of fragrance’. The victory the woman has is the battle of the heart and she won it by seduction, by wearing this perfume.

This advert was created in 1965, which was during the feminist era when women considered themselves more on an equal footing with men in all areas including dating and sexual equality. The woman is represented as powerful and able to make men do what she wants. Goddesses in mythology made men do as they wanted because they had powers and could control them. This woman’s smile and eye contact shows her confidence with the consumer and is an indication of her self-assurance.

This contrasts with the Bourjois advert in which the woman is turned away from us and is almost in a dream world of her own and not confronting the target buyers. Although we cannot see what she is wearing, her hair is short and sleek unlike the Bourjois model who certainly couldn’t undertake any action packed adventure in her extremely elaborate bouffant evening hair style. Natalie Portman takes the self-confidence to a new level because of the way she represents herself with her posture- being very loose and free but also very strong, her hair is very loose but also tidy which also shows self-assurance as she knows her hair will get wet from the water of the fountain but she is confident she can still capture a man into falling for her.

Miss Dior Advert (2013, France)

For my third and final advertisement, I chose the moving image Natalie Portman Miss Dior: ‘La vie en rose’ advert from 2013. This advert has very similar qualities to the other two and even though it is recent, it still shows the elegant and assertive qualities that each other advert embodies- it is still using all of these qualities.

This moving image advertisement stars Natalie Portman to be the model which is using celebrity endorsement. Natalie Portman is a well-known woman for her beauty and also her

The first screenshot I chose from the Miss Dior ‘La Vie En Rose’ advert is when she is by the fountain. I chose this because she is having fun and she is not worried about getting her hair wet because she’s got the ‘Dior’ perfume to help her. She is also wearing a strapless black dress which shows how she can gain elegance (even though it’s going to get wet) by wearing this perfume.

The second screenshot I chose was when the beautiful Natalie Portman walks down the stairs in her elegant ball gown, with her hair neatly done. This moment is almost like a Cinderella moment as she is walking down the stairs in her ball gown with her man waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. However, she is holding her shoes which show that she is laid back and ready to not walk slowly but skip down the stairs to get to her prince charming. This shot looks like it’s almost through pink tinted spectacles because her gown is a very light pink and the walls are washed with pink and everything looks very light and appealing to the eye. This is basically saying that if you get the Miss Dior perfume your life will be seen through pink tinted spectacles.

In my final screenshot, it shows Natalie Portman in black and white whereas the perfume bottle is shown in colour. This ties in with the name of the advert ‘La Vie En Rose’ which means ‘life in pink’. This is saying that if you buy this perfume your life will turn into a light pink, a relaxed colour and not be dull in black and white.

The name of this particular advert is called ‘la vie en rose’- this means ‘life in pink’ which ties in with this moving image advert very well because everything seem to be a light pink; the walls, her dress, flowers and the color of the actual perfume. It’s almost as if they Natalie Portman is telling you to see things through pink tinted spectacles. Pink is a very feminine color and as she is representing this color she also lures the man in by her beauty and her scent.