The famous Lenin quote, “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen,” does not apply to perfume ads. Nothing ever happens in a perfume ad; sometimes two minutes just feel like decades.
(Sidenote: Lenin’s perfume reviews would make a good Tumblr. Someone should do this.)
The Lenin tangent is just one of many places my mind was free to wander during Kate Moss’s two-minute-long-but-feels-like-much-longer virtual reality debut. It’s an ad for perfume, I think, though who can really be sure? But hark, here are some words from a publication called The Industry clarifying that yes, it really is a perfume ad:
Kate Moss has appeared in her first virtual reality film which has been created to launch make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury’s debut fragrance, Scent of a Dream. Moss floats in space in the celestial themed ad, which takes The Source featuring Candi Staton’s You Got The Love as its soundtrack.
And yes, leaving the description to a blockquote is a bit lazy, but you try watching that video and coming up with cogent explanations. I’ve got nothing. Nothing whatsoever.
VR perfume ads seem like a waste
Okay, that’s not entirely true. I’ve got something: Why does this need to exist? If we are to advertise perfume in VR, surely that calls for smell-o-vision (even South Park knew that). That day has yet to come, so VR perfume ads seem like a waste. The video is a frivolous bauble, which, come to think of it, is a good fit with the product. Maybe everything makes sense after all?
But I’d still propose that this is good news for VR: democratizing or popularizing the medium requires that this sort of digital nonsense be produced for all audiences. Yes, this is a waste of Kate Moss’s talents as well as those of the production company (yes, its name is really Happy Finish), but that’s how these things go. Hopefully the bad smell won’t last.
