The business of thirst: Why fragrance can always bet on sex

It’s surprising how much play a 49-second video can get online, but such is the business of internet thirst — and, it must be said, the business of fragrance. If fashion has gone in every possible direction over the last two decades, its fragrance ads remain unchanged and unchallenged. The one constant fashion can rely on, after all, is that fragrance does, and will, always sell, and that hot and sexy people will always help sell it. Why is it that fragrance — a $48.5 billion industry worldwide in 2023 — can follow the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” model, but fashion can’t?

The business of thirst

The first time I ever heard of Dolce & Gabbana was on TV. I can still replay the voice-over at the end of the original Light Blue ad reading “Dolce & Gabbana, Light Blue”. It was the most sex-charged ad on TV in my young, impressionable mind, marked by the close-ups of Gandy, the fragrance equivalent to the Calvin Klein Underwear ads most gay men my age can identify as a key part of their coming of age. Light Blue, both the men’s and women’s versions, remains one of Dolce & Gabbana’s best-selling fragrances, and it’s inarguably the most well-known, and all thanks to the campaign. Think of Charlize Theron’s iconic ads for Christian Dior’s J’adore, or Nicole Kidman’s legendary Chanel No. 5 film directed by Baz Luhrmann. These fragrances are known for these campaigns more so than for the scents themselves.

What is interesting is that, despite how hot and cold the online fashion and fashion-adjacent community can be about Dolce & Gabbana, it’s the steaminess of James and Ceretti in relation to the brand that everyone can agree on. According to Launchmetrics, Theo James has amassed a total media impact value of $497,000 for Dolce & Gabbana this week alone, with a data range from 7 July, the day before the video was posted, to 11 July.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Gandy became the face of Light Blue in 2007, and while the woman he is paired with has been re-cast over the years — make of that what you will — he has shot a variety of iterations of the campaign since. James possibly replacing him is part of a small shift in the luxury fragrance market, with Rihanna recently being announced as the new face of Dior’s J’adore, replacing Theron, who fronted the fragrance since 2004. (This, too, was first reported via pap shots on X.) Last year, Mugler unveiled Hunter Schafer as the face of its new iteration of the famous Angel scent, Angel Elixir, and Whitney Peak became the face of Coco Mademoiselle, replacing Keira Knightley, who was tapped by Chanel in 2007 and starred in a variety of popular campaigns. (Knightley became the face of the more adult spin-off scent, Coco Mademoiselle Intense, in 2018).