by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: August 08, 2008   Last Updated: September 08, 2008

Why ARE designer fragrances so popular? Could it be that they smell better than your average unbranded, non-celebrity endorsed perfumes and aftershaves? I doubt it. Maybe the smell lasts longer? The smell might last longer, but the fragrances all tend to be manufactured in the same place, besides surely the more you have to re-apply a fragrance, the more you use and the more often you have to replace it. It's all money in the bank for those willing to lend their name to a smell.

It seems to be quite a recent invention: the all-singing, all-dancing, all-conquering superstar celebrity. It seems that singers can no longer just sing (if they could sing in the first place), actors can no longer just act (acting's just so over-rated), dancers can no longer just dance, and fashion designers can no longer just design. Consequently, we have all sorts of cross-overs. Gwen Stefani isn't just a singer, she's also an actress, and now a clothes designer, plus she's lent her name to various fragrances and body lotions. I'm sure she picked the fragrance out herself, or not. I think Jennifer Lopez started off the trend of celebrities' lending their name to fragrances, which has now filtered down the celebrity spectrum. So people continue to snap up products named after celebrities, unaware of what role that particular celebrity has had in the creation of the product, but buying a brand, buying into a lifestyle. They, too, can smell like Kylie or whoever is popular that day.

What is disturbing is that people choose to buy perfumes endorsed by nobodies. I don't think I would be caught dead buying a fragrance with a picture of Paris Hilton on the box. Not in a million years! It may well smell delicious, but there are just too many negative connotations there for my liking. Even worse, in the United Kingdom we have nonentities such as Jade Goody (who made her name on Big Brother for being extremely stupid) lending (or should that be selling?) their names to perfume, and the population rushing out to buy them (until, in the case of Goody, she was revealed to be a bully- she stopped being so popular after that we're such a fickle public, aren't we?)

Then we have the various scents on the market associated with Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. When you're buying your Calvin Klein underpants, why not buy some nice manly smelling aftershave? It's a natural combination, surely. The people behind such fragrances are very adept at utilising images to their advantage. The marketing campaigns feature the latest up-and-coming models or established supermodels, so even if you don't know what the fragrance smells like you have some idea of the kind of person the fragrance is supposed to represent. If you apply that fragrance to yourself you may get that boy or girl, just like in the advert with the beautiful people writhing around half-naked. Or not, but we can all dream can't we?

All in all I don't think smell is the overriding influence on a person's choice of fragrance. It may be the ultimate decider, but surely when you're in a shop the fragrances you're more likely to sample are those that you've heard of. They may well be more expensive, but you remember those adverts and want to buy into the glamour of it all.

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