History Main / PerfumeCommercial

->'''TRÖÛP∃''' -- A new fragrance by TvTropes.

-->''[[AmbitionIsEvil Ambition]]''

-->[++ [[SevenDeadlySins Passion]] ++]

-->'''[+ [[color:orange:Purple]] +]'''

-->'''TRÖÛP∃''' -- A new fragrance by TvTropes.

* ''Grumpy Old Men'' suggested that perfume ads 'don't describe the perfume, but do adequately describe the state of your mind if you drink some'.

* ''{{Housepets}}'' featured a commercial for ''dog food'' in this style.

* Roger Zelazny's novel ''Isle of the Dead'' has a man from the 20th century living in the 25th. He's meeting a woman for dinner; she enters the room and falls into "a perfume-ad pose". You know immediately what he's talking about.

Perfume commercials have a tough task to complete; they're advertising through [[{{Television}} a medium]] that cannot possibly convey their product's ''sole feature'': the smell. The solution, such as it is, is to create an association with 'raw' human desire, elegance, beauty, and wealth via [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible incomprehensible art]]. When executed well, it looks like a glamorous clothing commercial, when done poorly may [[DesignStudentsOrgasm fall prey to]] [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain not having anything to]] [[DadaAd do with the product.]] (
Car adverts can be prone to this too, if they're selling the experience and lifestyle implied by driving the car instead of the engineering.

Perhaps because of this, a good many TV shows take a liking to parodying these commercials.

* [[{{ptitle7wmurkq3abiw}} Design Student's Orgasm]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?

Perfume commercials have a tough task to complete; they're advertising through [[{{Television}} a medium]] that cannot possibly convey their product's ''sole feature'': the smell. The solution, such as it is, is to create an association with 'raw' human desire, elegance, beauty, and wealth via [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible incomprehensible art]]. When executed well, it looks like a glamorous clothing commercial, when done poorly may fall prey to [[DesignStudentsOrgasm not having anything to]] [[DadaAd do with the product.]]

* A commercial for the Georgia Lottery does this. It seems to be a perfume commercial, complete with being DeliberatelyMonochrome and with emotional dialogue, only to cut to the to main people fighting over the lottery ticket.

-->[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe6zAjqOhY “Between desire and reality . . . ''A BIT'' . . . between fact and breakfast . . . madness lies, lies, lies . . . ''a bit'' . . . I hate you, I hate you and yet . . . I hate you. . . . Love, rage, and angst of the ear. Pretension . . . by Fry & Laurie.”]]

* During one of the seasons of ''ABitOfFryAndLaurie'', the opening credits parodied this.
-->"I hate you. I hate you, I hate you and yet ... I hate you. Pretention, by Fry and Laurie."

--> ''"Geeze, where do you freaks find these understanding guys, and where do I get one?!"''
--> -- '''Shelly''', ''WapsiSquare''

So you are a freak of nature, a witch, a SuperHero, or a ChosenOne. You are loaded with supernatural powers, and between going to work or [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld school]] you have some world saving duties to attend to that need to be kept secret. And on top of that, you also need to balance it out with a love life!

But you can't tell your boyfriend about it! He'd freak out and leave you, or worse. But then, you can't keep it a secret forever, either. At some point, one of your supernatural incidents will inevitably happen exactly when you were having a romantic dinner. Or maybe your relationship has simply reached the next level, and you feel that you need to be completely honest with him.

So what now? How will he react? Well, it turns out he's perfectly okay (well, for the most part he's perfectly okay) and understanding with it! That's right, as a reward for your sacrifices, the PowersThatBe will make sure that you end up with a truly noble and loving soul who loves you for who you are and doesn't care what you are. So no worries!

This trope is a DoubleStandard, in that wives and girlfriends are pretty much automatically accepting of their ActionHero husband/boyfriend's actions, whereas the number of husbands/boyfriends who automatically accept that their significant other is an ActionGirl are pretty thin on the ground. For the guy who is a super and needs a girlfriend, his powers are often a plus for her (because AllGirlsWantBadBoys). For women, finding a guy who truly doesn't have a problem with dating someone with superpowers when he's a {{Muggle}} is the bigger issue, because, well, NoGuyWantsAnAmazon.

Compare ButYourWingsAreBeautiful, when a disguise forms part of the powers. Compare to ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend for the ActionGirl [[InvertedTrope variant.]] Compare and contrast BoyMeetsGhoul, for the guy/girl who is on the other end of this trope. See also TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife, which is an aversion of this trope.

!!Examples:
[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* The central premise of ''[[NogizakaHarukaNoHimitsu The Secrets of Haruka Nogizaka]]''. The titular girl is an otaku.
* Ditto with ''[[OreImo My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute]]''. Except that the guy is not a boyfriend, but the big brother... [[{{Squick}} yeah]].
* Austria from ''AxisPowersHetalia'', in regards to his VictoriousChildhoodFriend Hungary. While he's concerned for her well-being, in the end he knows that if she wants to fight, he better lets her... since she will go [[OneManArmy One Woman Army]] and destroy the enemy. Considering their childhood, [[LoveAtFirstPunch he knows it beforehand]]!
* [[ShamanKing Keiko Asakura]] had been dumped by ''every'' single boyfriend she had when they learnt she was able to see spirits. Until the last JerkAss left her and a penniless musician with similar abilities comforted her. That guy was Mikihisa, and she would marry him.
* Horribly deconstructed with [[spoiler: Shiso and Ceres]] in ''AyashiNoCeres''. [[spoiler: Shiso started like this, but being left helpless when he and Ceres got attacked [[IJustWantToBeSpecial made him very frustrated]], so he asked Ceres to give him a part of her powers [[IWillProtectHer so he wouldn't be a burden on her.]] But then, [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity said powers turned out to be too much to handle]], and ItGotWorse...]]


[[AC:{{Comic Books}}]]
* [[NiceGuy Kong]] is this to [[XMen Kitty Pryde]] in UltimateMarvel, even going so far as to yell "You're welcome!" at AllOfTheOtherReindeer for not thanking her when she saves their lives.
* Back in the GoldenAge, Steve Trevor was this for WonderWoman (a remarkably progressive move for the times), and not at all threatened by the idea of getting rescued by or mooning over a woman who was twenty times stronger than him. The Silver and Bronze Age characterizations of him were...[[TooDumbToLive unfortunately]] [[JerkAss less so]], which probably led to him being deleted from continuity PostCrisis.
* In an old What If comic, Jimmy Olsen married Supergirl because of amnesia. Once she recovers and lets him know, he's totally fine with being married to Superman's cousin.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''InnocentBlood'', FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Marie has her understanding CopBoyfriend Joe.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Elend in Brandon Sanderson's ''{{Mistborn}}''. At least [[spoiler:until he gets superpowers himself.]]
* Seth in ''WickedLovely''. When Aislinn tells him that she can see faeries, he has exactly one moment of "Is this a joke?" before accepting it and trying to help her with her faery situation.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]
* The ''GhostWhisperer'' features Jim the Understanding Husband.
* Both [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] and played straight in ''{{Bewitched}}''. The original Darrin (Dick York) was less than understanding, to the point of being downright hostile to Samantha when she used her magic. TheOtherDarrin (Dick Sargeant), on the other hand, tried his hardest to be understanding, the point that it was more the fault of Endora and the rest of Samantha's family that TheOtherDarrin didn't get along with witches.
* Played with in the ''SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' TV series. Harvey ''does'' leave Sabrina when he finds out she's a witch, not out of intolerance but because she'd been using magic to mess with his life for years. He eventually does come back to her, though, and says he never had a problem with her being a witch per se.
* Zack was the "gay best friend" equivalent of this in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', at least until ExecutiveMeddling got in the way.
* Unless she's dating one of the undead, Buffy never got this on ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (even Riley, who was himself a demon fighting super-soldier, had an inferiority complex due to dating a genuine superhero). It's Willow who hit the boyfriend jackpot with Oz; upon being told the truth about the supernatural world she runs in, he replies, "Actually, it explains a lot," and just goes with the flow from there.
* Tyler Ford in ''TheMiddleman'''s unaired season finale (released as a comic)...[[spoiler:at least, until MM pushes the ResetButton]].
* Allison's husband Joe on ''{{Medium}}'' believes in her powers and is understanding and accepting of them.
* In ''{{Series/Merlin}}'', 2x09. Merlin discovers [[spoiler: Freya turns into a bastet at night, but he isn´t afraid and stills takes care of her. He even pets her cat´s head...]]
[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/understanding/ this]] ''WapsiSquare'' comic. Also the page quote.
* {{Subverted}} (although this may be a retrospective way of seeing it) in ''SluggyFreelance''. Leo seems to be accepting of all the weird things Zoë tells about happening to her - but it turns out that was only because he thought she was lying. In the words of another jerk he hangs out with, "You've got to respect a girl who realizes romantic relationships are based on lies and goes to town with it!" As soon as Leo finds out it was all true, he feels betrayed, and they eventually break off.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* [[PhineasAndFerb Candace]] seems to have this with Jeremy. Despite all of Candace's attempts to put a stop to PhineasAndFerb's projects, the guy never, ever seems to lose his cool, and they're still an item.
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[[quoteright:242: http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ChanelEgoiste2.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:242:TakeThat, [=DeBeers!=]]]
-->''[[AmbitionIsEvil Ambition]]''

-->[++ [[SevenDeadlySins Passion]] ++]

-->'''[+ [[color:orange:Purple]] +]'''

-->'''TRÖÛP∃''' -- A new fragrance by TvTropes.

Perfume commercials have a tough task to complete; they're advertising through [[{{Television}} a medium]] that cannot possibly convey their product's ''sole feature'': the smell. The solution, such as it is, is to create an association with 'raw' human desire, elegance, beauty, and wealth via [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible incomprehensible art]]. When executed well, it looks like a glamorous clothing commercial, when done poorly may fall prey to [[DesignStudentsOrgasm not having anything to]] [[DadaAd do with the product.]]

Car adverts can be prone to this too, if they're selling the experience and lifestyle implied by driving the car instead of the engineering.

Perhaps because of this, a good many TV shows take a liking to parodying these commercials.

Tropes commonly used:
* AppealToVanity
* BeautyEqualsGoodness
* BottledCool
* DadaAd
* [[{{ptitle7wmurkq3abiw}} Design Student's Orgasm]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?
* GetTheSensation
* MadeOfShiny
* SexForProduct
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible
* UpMarketing

* ''SaturdayNightLive'' did a ParodyCommercial for [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Calvin Kleen's]] ''Compulsion'' (a household cleaner) that heavily mocked the TrueArtIsIncomprehensible aspect.
** Was it also SNL that did the spoof ad for "Pretentious" ("It pretends to be all the things that I pretend to be")?
* One of the fake commercials in the video for NeilYoung's "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSSvzCNBvlQ This Note's For You]]". ("Forgive me, but I'm prettier than all of you." "Liar! Give me back my shoes!")
* Mocked in ''TheSimpsons'' with an ad exec's "retooled" version of The Mr. Plow commercial. It's a black and white, impressionistic mess reminiscent of many of the PerfumeCommercial tropes.
* ''TheDailyShow'' did one in mocking the Obamas' date to New York City with a perfume ad for "POTUS: For Men".
** One of ''TheColbertReport'''s early "products" was "Stephen Colbert's ''Scorn''." His Formula 401 ("premium man-seed") is also advertised in the pretentious-beauty-product style.
* ''Grumpy Old Men'' suggested that perfume ads 'don't describe the perfume, but do adequately describe the state of your mind if you drink some'.
* During one of the seasons of ''ABitOfFryAndLaurie'', the opening credits parodied this.
-->"I hate you. I hate you, I hate you and yet ... I hate you. Pretention, by Fry and Laurie."
* {{Subverted}} by Korean Air's "Color of Perfection" spot. Coded as a perfume ad verging on [[DesignStudentsOrgasm Design Student's Orgasm]], it uses Tiffany's trademarked blue color (for which it must have paid a small fortune) and music by Robert Matt. Many viewers probably still don't realize it's about an airline.
* Parodied in a Australian commercial for ''mutton'' (of all things), done as a stereotypical perfume commercial for the new scent: Lâmb.
* In the 8th episode of ''SheepInTheBigCity'', Sheep becomes famous for being on a commercial for Spotless dish soap that's an obvious perfume commercial parody
* Celebrity fragrance ads were dissected and parodied on an Infomania episode. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRwX3QPbMvA C-List: The new fragrance from Conor Knighton. "I'll get there someday."]]
* ''{{Tangled}}'''s [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JQ_bxt9trg Smolder by Flynn]].
* The 2009 [[Film/StarTrek Star Trek]] film caused three novelty perfumes/colognes to be created: [[TheKirk Tiberius]], [[MateOrDie Pon Farr]], and [[RedShirt Red Shirt]]. [[http://trekmovie.com/2009/03/04/trek-spring-collection-preview-first-look-at-genki-star-trek-fragrances/ Even the bottles are amusing.]]
* A commercial for the Georgia Lottery does this. It seems to be a perfume commercial, complete with being DeliberatelyMonochrome and with emotional dialogue, only to cut to the to main people fighting over the lottery ticket.
* ''{{Rugrats}}'' had a scene where Angelica is playing make believe that she is in a perfume ad, wearing a long flowing dress while walking down a fancy hallway.
* ''{{Weekenders}}'' showed Tish contemplating what a commercial product named after her would be like. Cue her standing in a dress for a perfume called "Tish" "''Ah, the scent of me.''"
* Roger Zelazny's novel ''Isle of the Dead'' has a man from the 20th century living in the 25th. He's meeting a woman for dinner; she enters the room and falls into "a perfume-ad pose". You know immediately what he's talking about.
* ''HannahMontana'' featured an episode where she does a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9KSskUH9mg perfume commercial]], telling viewers that the fragrance "completes the circle", and involving her standing in front of a picture frame with a pair of gymnasts rolling behind her.
-->'''Lilly''': Who are those two?
-->'''Miley''': I think they're the circle.
* ''{{Housepets}}'' featured a commercial for ''dog food'' in this style.
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<<|BasicCommercialTypes|>>

-->'''Lily''': Who are those two?

* {{Rugrats}} had a scene where Angelica is playing make believe that she is in a perfume ad, wearing a long flowing dress while walking down a fancy hallway.
* {{Weekenders}} showed Tish contemplating what a commercial product named after her would be like. Cue her standing in a dress for a perfume called "Tish" "''Ah, the scent of me.''"

* One of the fake commercials in the video for NeilYoung's "This Note's For You". ("Forgive me, but I'm prettier than all of you." "Liar! Give me back my shoes!")

* In the 8th episode of {{SheepInTheBigCity}} Sheep becomes famous for being on a commercial for Spotless dish soap that's an obvious perfume commercial parody

* The 2009 [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StarTrek?from=Main.StarTrek2009 Star Trek]] film caused three novelty perfumes/colognes to be created: [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheKirk Tiberius]], [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MateOrDie Pon Farr]], and [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedShirt Red Shirt]]. [[http://trekmovie.com/2009/03/04/trek-spring-collection-preview-first-look-at-genki-star-trek-fragrances/ Even the bottles are amusing]].