Red Lippy - for you or for your old man?
By Anna Warwick
In case you haven’t seen it, here's the original French version of the ad, shot by acclaimed photographer Bettina Rheims.
If the commerical looks to you like another one of those old French movies they play on off-ratings daytime TV - where a young girl falls for the charms of a relatively old man - it is actually meant to. According to petitebrigitte.com, the commercial was inspired by Brigitte Bardot’s 1963 movie Le Mepris (Contempt)– directed by Jean-Luc Godard at the height of BB’s glory... way back in the swinging '60s... that era of smoking and free lovin'. The ad even uses music from the movie.
Brigitte Bardot in Le MeprisOk - its fine for the French to pay their tributes to an 'icon' like Bardot (whatever - sex sirens are rife throughout history) - but why would a cosmetic company use a male fantasy to promote a woman’s product?
Here are some more fantastic reader comments:
I think the ad is aimed at any female who feels sexy on the inside and outside and, simply put, if you have it flaunt it, if it makes you feel good wear it. Of course the status of the product name says it all, like the ad with Nicole Kidman - “we can look like a million dollars, we can feel like a million dollars because we are worth it!” Red is a fiesty colour so men in general should watch their step when their partner wears red lippy... Vicki
Ok but the only reason Julie Ordon is there naked on that bed with the Chanel lippy on is because they really did pay her – probably more than – a million dollars. Would she do it for free? Would posing naked with lippy on simply make her feel like a million dollars? Anna.
Actually I think it's a bit pervy. I'm a big fan of this lippy and I'm not happy with the image this ad presents. I think I'll try the Guerlain Kiss-Kiss next - after all it's my (49) dollars! Regards, Jane.
I don't know who the hell it’s aimed at, cos I thought she looked a lot better without the bright red lips???? haha! Hazel
I read your comments on the new ad campaign for the Chanel Rouge. I think the ad must be aimed at men aged 30-50 who would purchase the product for their wife or perhaps girlfriend on the side. The way the ad is portrayed is very sexual to men. I don’t believe women would be that engaged in the ad except to say “what on earth was that an ad for? An escort service?” Eliza .
I believe most advertising these days is aimed at women and if Chanel are stupid enough to think it will make a man go out and buy his wife/gf lipstick they obviously haven't caught one that men don't like to shop, nor would they get any benefit out of buying their chick the lipstick! Jessica
Great to read a perceptive, spot-on critique of the latest Chanel ad! good to know that shesaid is run by a woman of brains and beauty - who can see through a phoney ad campaign at a thousand paces!
'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.' Dr Martin Luther King.
'In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.' George Orwell
'A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.' Edmund Burke.
Every good wish, Dr Jocelynne
Thanks Dr J! Anna.
My theory is that the ad is cleverly appealing to the post-feminist regrets of the modern woman. What price have we paid for independence? A lifetime of bitter disappointment in the form of having to buy our own lippy and wear it for one another… This ingenious ad is saying to me that if I buy myself a designer lippy, I can buy back the whole Ingénue fantasy of the exotic older man who will take care of me!
I can instantly reverse all those years of hard work that made ME the man in the bed, and return to life as a wrinkle-free naked innocent... yeah, right. It has all the appeal of life as a lap dog - who takes a dependent child-woman seriously? Does she even take herself seriously? This ad is a slippery slope to Low Self Esteem town.
In fact, the commercial has been banned in Canada. Apparently the Television Bureau of Canada does not allow nudity in commercials and wanted portions to be pixilated so that shapes of Ordon’s body are blurred out. Chanel’s directors announced that it would not compromise the artistic integrity of the clip. Of course now everyone in Canada wants to see it!
What do you think? Email me at feedback@shesaid.com.
