For today’s blog entry, I wanted to start thinking more outside the box than conventional pieces of media I have been using. Sitting in my room trying to figure out a great topic for a blog entry, I looked over to my vanity to see my Marc Jacobs Lola Perfume. The bottle is absolutely beautiful and I always receive compliments on it.
Then I began to think, perfume is an extremely superficial industry. Without even smelling the perfume, people will automatically be drawn to purchase it because of how the bottles looks or how having this perfume will reflect their lifestyle. I am completely guilty of conforming to this trend. I think that 90% of the perfume I have bought (without smelling the scent) is because I like the bottle, I like the celebrity who endorses the product or because of the advertisement that portrays a lifestyle I want to be a part of. The perfume industry is usually advertising through magazines or other paper methods, banking on the fact that the public will like the appearance of the bottle enough to not bother to make the effort to make sure it smells to their liking.
In class we discussed how stereotypes are very prevalent in the media, and are very apparent through television shows. Television has the ability to broadcast to a certain audience and appeal to what viewers want. Very similar is the website we browsed, www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, that makes jokes that touch on reality. The reason why people read it and think it is funny is because it is funny only to people who understand. Perfume is alike in the sense that advertisers are blatantly targeting a certain group of people to like their products. Most people aspire to a high end lifestyle, which is why perfume names are picked very carefully, ex. Princess, Hollywood, Oh La La, Lucky You, to create a tacit level of prestige.
In particular, look at the advertisements geared toward men’s perfume. It is clear which perfumes are supposed to be targeting a homosexual vs. a straight man. With male perfume, it is not so much about the bottle anymore, but rather the images surrounding the idea behind the perfume. This industry is stereotypical in this sense because who is to say that a straight man won’t enjoy D&G perfume. This goes both ways; perfume advertisers are assuming all gay men would be attracted to images seen below in March Jacobs & D&G. Many homosexual men still enjoy being portrayed in a more masculine manner whether it be through sports etc.
So much is able to be said without ACTUALLY saying anything. Through the advertisement, style and name of the bottle and the celebrities promoting the product, the public feels buying perfume will produce an elevated lifestyle.
I LOVE your blog post. I think it's completely true. In class today, we saw the video how celebrities don't really affect political endorsements, but they definitely do for perfume. I think that at least subconsciously we decide to buy perfume because of their celebrity endorsements, bottle, and prettiness of advertisement just as much as we do because of the scent.
ReplyDeleteI also think this post fits into our class discussion today perfectly. You could even touch upon the fact that the people/celebrities that advertise for these scents are being exploited. Similar to our debate today, it can be seen in your multiple images that both men and women like to be sexy and scandalous, breaking any previous categories they were limited to.
ReplyDeleteGood topic But I disagree about your view on men and their colognes.
ReplyDeleteI use Calvin Klien be and only because it smells awesome. However I do know of some girls who buy perfumes solely because of the name. Particularly Davidoff Cool waters. I think celebs like sawyer from lost being the brand ambassador does have a huge effect on sales.
I like your example of perfume as a medium. For paper 1 I discussed how fashion and clothes are media. I agree with you that the bottle itself is a medium, and broadcasts a message to the audience. This is similar to the alcohol bottle example we talked about in class.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the perfume bottle as a medium. However, I would argue that the medium truly stems from branding. Yes, the scent does convey a message, but the message can be quit ambiguous. We all smell different things, thus, making the message ambiguous and lost. There is no clear, linear message in perfume.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this raises the question of: is a medium a channel where the message is clear, or is a medium a channel that opens the doors for questions and interpretations?
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Great selection of topic. Although the actual object of analysis is a bit blurry--are you analyzing the actual perfume (the smell it sells), the perfume bottle, or the perfume ads? Each is an individual medium that gets (more or less) artificially linked with one another.
ReplyDeleteThus, the question rises as how are the smells and the images arbitrarily related by the media?
Your connection with the notion of "stereotype" is not very strong, however, I could definitely identify with the discussion of class at the end of the essay.
Overall, my suggestions would be, narrow the topic down, delineate your object of analysis, then probe deeper into one thesis.
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