Diddy's New Fragrance Ad Is So NSFW, It's Ridiculous (Seriously NSFW)

Diddy and his girlfriend Cassie Ventura basically have sex in this NSFW spot for his new fragrance, 3 AM. But he says it’s actually not about sex—not really.

“I think if people hear about the video, they’re going to hear that it’s racy and provocative, but I also think they’re going to hear people say that it’s beautiful,” he tells Style.com. “That whole interaction has nothing to do with sex as much as it has to do with love. My concept is that love is the new sexy.”

The minute-long video is essentially an extended, quick-cut seduction sequence. “I like this style of commercial,” Diddy says. “I was brought up during that Calvin Klein time, and those sexy videos are part of what made me want to get into the fragrance industry. It was those types of ads.”

The rapper and entrepreneur will roll out the fragrance at Macy’s, but the retailer apparently wasn’t thrilled with the racy promo—and has demanded a toned-down version to play in stores, says Page Six.



If You Can Sit Through This 7-Minute One Direction Perfume Ad, You’re a Better Tween Than I

They pout, they preen, they shill. And more than likely, they score.

The members of One Direction, boy band and global merchandising phenomenon, star in a new video that's not a total goof (not intentionally anyway) despite the presence of a fussy photographer named "Girolle." The short film, with its photo-shoot setup, hypes the singers' second perfume, called That Moment.

Not a card-carrying member of the 1D fan club? Then watching the vignette might be as painful as gargling a cucumber and cedarwood-scented cologne. But it comes as no shock that the young Brits are extending their female-fueled brand again. Their first perfume, Our Moment, was the fastest-selling fragrance of last year.

And so what if the just-released video is a mishmash of worn clichés, bad accents and faux seriousness? (And one bejeweled crotch!) Any glimpse of the superstars making silly faces, mugging for the camera or even drawing breath will probably move product.

What does That Moment really smell like? Green apple and greenbacks.




David Fincher Directs Rooney Mara in Calvin Klein Fragrance Ad

David Fincher's Calvin Klein commercial starring Rooney Mara exists in a dreary, dreamless dimension beyond banality and cliché. It occupies a zone so soullessly stylized that "style" loses all meaning … a wasteland so unironic that irony screams for release, only to go unheard. This 60-second black-and-white spot introducing CK's Downtown fragrance plays like an unfunny parody of its putrid genre—yet it's very real, which makes irony scream all the more. In other words, it's like every other pretentious, faux-artsy perfume and fashion commercial. Maybe more so. Fincher previously directed Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network. "Runaway" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs plays on the soundtrack. The ad features puppies, buses, rain, subways, earbuds and a press conference. A lot of stuff happens in slow motion. Mara cracks a smile, which The Huffington Post seems to think is a big deal. I'm not sold on the name of the perfume, either. How does downtown usually smell? In my experience, it stinks. Print ad below the video.

    

Ads for Playboy Fragrances Have Plenty of Happy Endings, and a Few Weird Ones Too

One of the better Playboy ads of recent years was last year's "Elevator" spot from DDB Paris and directors The Perlorian Brothers. Here are two more ads done in the same style. The earlier spot sold shower gel for men; these are for Playboy's VIP fragrances for men and women. Playboy is at its best when it's not taking itself too seriously. That's (mostly) true here, plus there's the added bonus of a nice structure that keeps things lively. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Playboy Fragrances
Advertising Agency: DDB, Paris
Executive Creative Director: Alexandre Hervé
Copywriter: Alexis Benoit
Art Director: Paul Kreitmann
Production Company: Les Télécréateurs
Director: The Perlorian Brothers
Account Director: Xavier Mendiola
Planner: Fabien Leroux
Sound: THE
Client Team Director: Jurgen Scharfenstein
Agency Producers: Emilie Talpaert, Sophie Megrous
Account Team: Julie Garguillo, Timothee Desruelles

    

Three’s Company in Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola’s New Prada Short Film

From flatulence to fancy perfume, I've had a fragrant week at AdFreak. Prada has commissioned a short film by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola to tout its Candy L'Eau scent. Two guys star with Lea Seydoux, who made an impression a few years back by bouncing off walls, rolling on floors and flashing her panties in a Prada commercial. For now, the client is teasing the new effort via 12-second previews—see three of them below—that follow the fabulously coiffed and smartly attired trio to the cinema, a surprise birthday party and a beauty salon. "How much longer can we possibly all be so happy together?" Seydoux asks while enjoying a mani-pedi treatment. The three-way relationship in Truffaut's Jules and Jim was an inspiration, though the slightly muted, dreamy images here play more like Anderson's own style with dashes of Fellini and David Lynch (at their most playful and benign). The trailers work fine as mini-films, and the super-short format seems perfect for Prada or any high-end fragrance purveyor—providing slightly surreal, sweet suggestions of story line and leaving no time for the hyper-stylization to sour or the stench of pretentious commerce to creep in. For more Wes "Branderson," check out our collection of the director's top 10 commercials.