Steve McQueen parfum D'Homme, zombies, vampires and halloween!

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!

"The return of the dead celebrities to endorse perfumes"

A scary story of fine fragrances by + Q Perfume Blog.

Back in february I announced in Trends& Blends, (my blog for trends and perfume launches only), in a post called "Punk is dead but returned as a perfume", the launch of The Sex Pistols' fragrance,. Although not all the members of Sex Pistols died of a heroin overdose, like Sid Vicious, the original punk movement they have initiated in 1975 is certainly dead. So it came to a surprise to all of us that they would endorse a fragrance. First for not being exactly the model of people who would buy fragrances or take showers in the first place, but mostly for being "dead" celebrities in a certain way of speaking. Endorsing Fragrance & Beauty Limited's idea of a punk perfume really stroke me as a the weirdest thing in this industry.

Later in February, a Josephine Baker fragrance was also launched by Etat Libre D'Orange, apparently to be sold at Sephora in France, as a continuation of the music celebrities' perfume collection, after the previous Sex Pistols bottle.

Ok, we can buy that idea right? Bring dead famous music celebrities/bands to endorse fragrance is not such a crazy idea, because we continue to listen to them, although they are already deceased or no longer playing as a band.

BUT, what about bringing a dead celebrity to endorse a fragrance? Weird? No! Creepy!

I am and always was definitely IN LOVE with the RIP celeb Steve McQueen. He was gorgeous.The ultimate king of cool, as people used to call him. My number!

And he would still be, if he was alive today. But now we have our juicy celebs that are pretty much alive, such as Brad Pitt, Daniel Graig, Russel Crowe...  etc etc etc... don't we?

Fascinated by this marketing strategy, I entered to the website of the fragrance to learn more about it. According to it, "Mr. Mc Queen is the timeless evocation of the masculine appeal, who happens to be now, embodied by a fragrance that reflects the man he was".

As in the site: "the ideal medium for evoking the absent, reviving the legend and becoming immersed in the myth." 

And how do this absent being came back to the living? Smelling like a burst of green citrus opening of marigolds, green apples and lemons, with spicy notes of cardamom, sage and cinnamon, and a base of patchouli, amber and cedar. Woody, leathery, citrusy and spicy.

The fact is, the past has been used by many brands as inspiration when creating new fragrances. French niche brand Histoires de Parfums for example, has a vast array of celebrities from the past as inspiration of their perfumes, such as Julius Verne, Casanova, Mata Hari, and many more. But here I sense another behavior. It is the same behavior that makes series like Buffy the vampire slayer, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, or the phenomenon/saga Twilight a worldwide success. 

After all the blood sucking series, zombies are back. From the cult movie The return of the living dead (1985) to Beatles zombie movies, lesbian zombies movies, and the latest Resident Evil (number 50 by now) or Zombieland (2009), I can't help it to think that we do have an obsession with the dead returning to life to haunt us!

If it became such an obsession, that now fragrance brands are spending their millions in fragrances endorsed by them, we have to point it out right? So let's see where it all began:

Since the early ages we are interested in the dark side of life, strange and frightening creatures, death and "the other side". Exploring the unknown, the forbidden or the terrifying is to deal with our primal instincts and its fears: our vulnerability, our loss of identity, our fear of death, our fear of sex etc etc...

Weather a story, a poem or a movie, the horror genre is commonly macabre, scary, chiller, strange/spooky, disturbing or sometimes, very close to reality.

Horror films go back to hundred years ago and as far as movies were produced. From spooky ghosts; swamp monsters; zombies - Franksteins; mummies; and  evil spirits, to vampires; mad men; psychopaths; possessed children; and alien/sci-fy creatures, we humans like to watch how these forces of evil end up defeated, and the normality is re- stablished. We like to be scared by them, and watch them being defeated by our heroes.

Many religions, cults and myths had blood drinking as a source of power, such as cannibalism for example. And from them, we developed our curiosity for sucking blood creatures.

Nosferatu

In 1897 Brian Stroke wrote his vampire novel Dracula. After many short terror movies, in 1922, Nosferatu was produced by F. W. Murnau and considered the very first genuine vampire feature. Followed by them, came the living dead monsters, such as Frankstein (1931) or mummies, as in The mummy (1932) staring Boris Karloff. During the 40's mummies were very popular. But nothing beat the zombies. Inspired by the Haitian voodoo, the zombies debuted in a book called The Magic Island by William B. Seabrook, about the adventures and horrific encounters with the living dead in an Haitian island.

Zombie in the bantu language means ghost or departed spirit. The shambling hulks with expressionless faces and unfocused starring eyes, hungry for human blood or flesh or brains was first seen in 1932, in a movie called White Zombie. 

Many zombie movies came along. The most famous ones were The night of the living dead in 1968, The return of the living dead in 1985, Re-animator also that year, Pet Sematary (by king of terror Stephan King) in 1989 and Resident Evil -  succeeding for nearly 2 decades.

Terror is installed in our minds as a scape valve since the early age. From fairytales to children and preteen stories, witches, bad queens and monsters -  they all come to install fear.

Tim Burton made zombies-like creatures (or creatures from "the other side") available to kids in Beetlejuice, Corpse Bride, The night before Christmas and Coraline.

American writer R.L. Stiner is one of the favorites among pre teens with his collection Goosebumps and Horrorland.

We love to think that Elvis was abducted by creatures of another planet or that Jim Morison will come back someday.
Paranormal Activity by Israeli film director Oren Peli sold millions worldwide recently. The young couple haunted by a supernatural presence coming from the other side, spooked the hell out of all of us. It was such a success that movie number two is already here to spook again. If becoming obsessed by the dead is such a common human behavior, no wonder someone decided to use it in the beauty industry, and bring deceased celebs to life, "to revive the absent", in a beautiful and glamourous way to endorse a fragrance. 

Why not wear this fragrance in a Halloween party this year?


We will watch the trend closely, believe me or I will come after you one day!!!


To watch the return of the living dead, click HERE.
To watch Michael Jackson's famous Thriller video, click HERE


For the fragrance, click HERE.