The Most Beautiful Perfume Commercials: A Journey into the Imagination

Discover our ranking, inevitably subjective, of the most beautiful perfume commercials. Very often, when one is touched by a beautiful advertisement, one rushes into a perfumery to smell the perfume that has been made a star by its publicity.

This art of advertising indeed aims to sublimate creations, to make one dream, to make one travel in the imagination. Commercials are increasingly sophisticated and increasingly spectacular.

They are sometimes directed by great film producers, and the costs of these short films are sometimes colossal. Some commercials leave an indelible mark, even years later, and here are a few memories.

Cult Commercials That Marked History

Cacharel and “Loulou? Oui c’est moi!”

You must remember this cult phrase? So cult that it was parodied by French comedians Les Nuls. Louise Brooks is featured in this Cacharel ad in 1987.

Trésor by Lancôme

Trésor by Lancôme sublimates the charismatic Isabella Rossellini on the Trocadéro esplanade. Commercial directed in 1990 by Paolo Roversi.

Égoïste by Chanel

Égoïste, from the House of Chanel, directed by the talented Jean-Paul Goude, in 1990, hits hard. This commercial marked me. Set to obsessive music, the ad features angry women on their balconies, addressing Mr. Égoïste below and shouting “égoïste, égoïste”. It is a commercial that received a Gold Lion at Cannes in 1990.

Samsara by Guerlain

Samsara by Guerlain was quite avant-garde by talking about the perfume of the 3rd millennium, a rather unprecedented spiritual approach in the field of perfume with filming in Tibet. In 1991, director Patrick Demarchelier favored the color red, a sacred color of temples in Asia which echoed the red of the bottle designed by a sculptor I knew and revered, Robert Granai.

Coco by Chanel

Coco by Chanel definitely left a mark in many memories. Film directed in 1991 by Jean-Paul Goude, Vanessa Paradis embodied a bird swinging in a golden cage under the watchful eye of a magnificent Angora cat.

CK One by Calvin Klein

Kate Moss greatly helped the fragrance CK One by Calvin Klein, in 1994, to become famous and very popular. She perfectly embodied the concept of this unisex perfume. She had previously embodied the perfume Obsession by Calvin Klein.

The Dior Saga: J’Adore and Miss Dior

Dior’s ads are memorable, especially the first one for J’Adore by Dior. Remember Carmen Kass in 1999 in that bath of gold, then the runway show in the Palace of Versailles which revealed Charlize Theron who then continued to lend her image for several spots of the perfume.

In 2011, Jean-Jacques Annaud resurrected Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, and Marilyn Monroe in a commercial, but this ad failed to eclipse all those filmed by the sublime Charlize Theron.

Natalie Portman left Hollywood in 2010 to shoot the ad for Miss Dior Chérie by Dior, directed by the famous director Sofia Coppola, that of a romantic stroll in Parc Monceau.

Sofia Coppola would again direct the commercial for Miss Dior in 2013 with Natalie Portman, but this time, the actress is an Oscar winner. She plays a woman madly in love to the tune of La Vie en Rose sung by Grace Jones.

Natalie Portman would then continue to embody this fragrance in many Dior perfume commercials, notably one with this phrase also become cult: and you, what would you do for love? It is the Miss Dior commercial I prefer.

La Vie est Belle by Lancôme

Julia Roberts’ beautiful smile illuminates all the commercials for the perfume La Vie est Belle by Lancôme and contributes to making it a global success.

The Chanel No. 5 Saga

Some older commercials, like that of Chanel No. 5 in 1973, have left a vague memory but I remember the superb face of Catherine Deneuve seen by Richard Avedon.

• Carole Bouquet: In 1993 shot by Patrick Demarchelier, and in 1997, sublimated by Dominique Issermann.
• Little Red Riding Hood: One of my favorites remains Little Red Riding Hood played by Estella Warren, directed by Luc Besson in 1998. Estella Warren would then be photographed by Jean-Paul Goude in 1999 then in 2000.
• Nicole Kidman (2004): Embodied by Nicole Kidman and photographed by Baz Luhrmann. As in Moulin Rouge, this director has Nicole Kidman play an impossible love story, in a short film which was a commercial that is among the most expensive in the industry.
• Audrey Tautou (2009): After an American actress, make way for a French actress revealed by the film Amélie. She was filmed in a night train, by this same director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and photographed by Dominique Issermann.
• Gisele Bündchen (2014): She was the muse of Chanel No. 5.

All Chanel commercials are among the most beautiful perfume commercials, only one failure in this saga, the one that featured Brad Pitt, a man as a muse for a feminine perfume.

Fashion Designers’ Commercials

Jean-Paul Gaultier: Like its sulphurous creator and through the eye of director Jean-Baptiste Mondino, in 1997, mixed the perfume Le Mâle (perfume for men) and Le Classique (perfume for women). A sailor languorously kisses a woman, to the music of Bellini’s opera Norma.

Mugler: The couturier Mugler in 2011 staged the superb Eva Mendes for the commercial of Angel, a sci-fi staging. Eva Mendes starts dreaming that she is dancing amidst the stars.

Gucci: Nicolas Winding, director of Drive, in 2012, sublimated Blake Lively in a glamorous atmosphere for the perfume Gucci Première.

Prada: In 2013, Léa Seydoux, before embodying Vuitton Parfums, played in an offbeat scene directed by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for the Perfume Candy by Prada.

Dolce & Gabbana: The same year Martin Scorsese united for the first time Matthew McConaughey and Scarlett Johansson for The One and The One for Men.

The Most Beautiful Perfume Commercials for Men

What woman hasn’t fantasized about the handsome athletic man coming out of the sea in Acqua di Gio by Armani, in 2015.

Dior (Eau Sauvage & Sauvage): Alain Delon, in an excerpt from the film La Piscine, perfectly embodied L’Eau Sauvage by Dior in 2010. He embodied this perfume in two commercials drawn from the actor’s filmography. In another style, elegant in his black turtleneck sweater, Zidane was also a memorable commercial for Dior’s Eau Sauvage.

Sauvage, the new Perfume by Dior, was interpreted for several commercials by the dark Johnny Depp. The first dates from 2015.

Bleu de Chanel: In 2010, Martin Scorsese for the perfume Bleu de Chanel, films Gaspard Ulliel who abandoned glory for a pretty blonde. Still seductive in the second commercial, but this time, he seduces a beautiful Asian woman.

Dior Homme: In 2013, embodied by Robert Pattinson under the direction of Romain Gavras, made many young women dream.

Hermès: In 2016, creates a commercial for the perfume Terre d’Hermès with themes of earth, man, and horse. Each Hermès commercial, whether for a perfume for men or for a perfume for women, for fashion or accessories, takes you into a universe quite apart, very identifiable and immediately recognizable.

Yves Saint Laurent: Director Darren Aronofsky after Black Swan, signed a striking commercial for La Nuit De L’Homme by Saint Laurent in 2011, embodied by an actor I like very much, Vincent Cassel.

The Revolution of “La Petite Robe Noire”

A commercial that did not rely on a muse, nor an actress, is that of La Petite Robe Noire, in 2012. This perfume is part of my history, since I developed this fragrance with Delphine Jelk, in the Exclusives range in 2009.

But it is really the advertising and this slender silhouette created by Kuntzel and Deygas, a revolutionary approach in the field of perfumery that contributed to making it known to a wider public and giving it a place of honor in the sales charts.

The success of a perfume depends on great coherence between all elements, of course on the quality and originality of the fragrance, a beautiful bottle, an evocative name, but it is really the advertising that allows a fragrance to become popular and make it an international success.