“The eye is both feminine and powerful”
When creating a fragrance, many marketers will brand it with a certain celebrity or word, so the person buying it can feel associated with that in order to empower themselves to feel like they are one in the same as their new and powerful scent. A combination of a single word with a gorgeous celebrity and the scent of sandalwood lilac can cause mass amounts of people to flock to their nearest mall and go crazy. The smell of David Beckham is one thing, but what happens when you add the talents of fashion (Carol Lim and Humberto Leon), choreography (Ryan Huffington– choreographer of the Chandelier music video & Margaret Qualley), Spike Jones, and the song ‘Mutant Brain (ft Assassin)’? All while referencing the earlier posted video by Fatboy Slim?????
You get KENZO World- The New Fragrance.
This video itself is a modern day musical text painting that reflects the description of the perfume itself.
“KENZO WORLD reveals a new definition of femininity with its new perfume. This intense eau de parfum reveals the essence of a strong, bold, determined woman. In her image, Francis Kurkdjian and Maïa Lernout revisit the KENZO WORLD floral bouquet with addictively velvety black plum, sparkling peony and jasmine, and indulgent vanilla. A gourmet fragrance for any woman who dares to be herself. KENZO WORLD, an intense eau de parfum, reveals your power.”
This entire video is a redefinition of femininity. It begins with a woman leaving a fancy social event to grab a breath of fresh air, only to be able to let herself go from her mental societal constructs of who she is supposed to be and allow herself to have an explosion of expression in an unconventional way. This immediate change in mentality is shown in the introduction of the music, which itself has intense beat from the music of Ape Drums (an American DJ known for combining electro-dance music with Caribbean sounds/music). As she begins to let go, you see a sense of freedom on her face that shows her beginning to define herself. The idea of a constructed society is then shown with her interaction with the statue head. As she is moving around, she goes to the statue head and yells at it, which would have been considered absolutely improper of a scene like the one she was in a little while ago.
Spike Jones continues to show this idea of releasing your inner self beautifully throughout the rest of the video, showing the woman go between trying to keep herself bound to what she believes to be the “proper way” (for instance when she is trying to control her arm from moving about spastically) and allowing her to feel the freedom of breaking away from it (when she jumps through the eye and beats her chest while shouting).
This whole work of art greatly relates to the discussion of music and politics in the 20th C. The work is showing the breaking away from typical society in a setting that is totally unexpected, and does so so beautifully that it leaves a lasting impression on the viewer.
“I love this publicity cause it shows the woman by a really different way than the others publicities of fragrance. It shows the liberty and the power of women”
-Saku123 (youtube user)
In class we have talked a lot about collaborations of works, and works that are related to/make us think of real world experiences (like music for airports), but present them in a way in which they force the observer/listener to question the meaning of the work itself and the motives behind that. KENZO World does that above and beyond any other modern collaboration I have seen, and I believe works like this set a huge influence on the future of art and politics.
Excellent Post! I don’t really have too much to say about except that I thought you did a great job of discussing all the different aspects of this ad. I enjoyed how you contrasted its design with those of typical perfume advertisements, and also used it to expand on concepts introduced in class. I guess the one suggestion I’d have is to make it a bit clearer where the first quotation after the “Kenzo World” video is coming from.
I was really intrigued while reading this post and think you did a great job captivating your audience! I had not seen this video before reading this post and think you did a great job analyzing it. I find the contrast between the “socially normal feminine” woman in the beginning and the “free and powerful” woman at the end very interesting. I think this video is special because it is very different from other fragrance advertising videos. It makes me interested and definitely impacted me. Great job!