D GOAL 4 EVALUATE THE WAY ADVERTISING CREATES DESIRE FOR

PRODUCTS

Grasse, France

producing roses, jasmine, and lavender for centuries. Muls

rose absolute, a liquid extracted from rose petals, sells for
$3650 a pound. Explains Mul, Picking roses will never be
done by machine. The rose petals are carefully harvested by
hand during the early morning. By ten oclock, the heat of
the sun begins to wilt the flowers, and the workers are done
for the day. Labor is 60 percent of the cost, says Mul.
The high cost of natural ingredients is just one of the
reasons that perfumers today also use artificial ingredients
in their fragrances. Synthetics also allow perfumers to use
scents such as lilac that cannot be obtained naturally, or
scents from flowers that are too rare to be picked. Synthetics
save wild animals from being used for their musk as well.
According to perfumer Harry Fremont, Good fragrance is
a balance between naturals and synthetics.
Once perfumers have created a lovely fragrance, its
time for the marketing department to work its magic. The
industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year
to convince people to buy something they dont really
need. The success rate for new perfumes is lowonly
about one in ten is successful, so spending money on
advertising is a big gamble. Its also the only way to let the
world know about a fragrance so beautiful that a man will
miss the woman who wears it when she leaves the room,
a perfume so enchanting that it can make us believe our
dreams will come true.

Perfume:
The Essence
of Illusion
This man is standing outside the Sephora
perfume superstore in Paris.

Reading
A. Discuss these questions with a partner.
1. Have you ever bought perfume or
cologne? What brand did you buy?
2. Why do people wear perfume or
cologne?
3. What do ads for perfume or cologne
usually show?

Word Focus

synthetic = artificial, man-made

renowned = famous
wilt = If a flower wilts, it gradually
turns soft and brown because it needs
water or is dying.
musk = a substance with a strong
smell that is used in making perfume
gamble = risk

82 Luxuries

For me perfume is an indulgence, says Angie Battaglia, an Austin,

Texas, businesswoman who owns 30 scents.

Perfume, says Sophia Grojsman of International Flavors &

Fragrances, is a promise in a bottle. We want to believe. We
want to be prettier, richer, sexier, and happier than we are.
Consider the labels on the fragrances we buy: Joy, Dolce Vita,
Pleasures, White Diamonds, Beautiful. Said Charles Revson,
founder of the Revlon cosmetics company, We sell hope.
In terms of chemistry, fragrances are a mixture of
aromatic oils and alcohol. Perfume has a concentration of
oils greater than 22 percent. Eau de parfum has a 15 to 22
percent concentration. The less aromatic eau de toilette has
8 to 15 percent oils, and cologne contains less than 5 percent
oils. The fixatives, or oils that make a fragrance last a long
time, traditionally came from animals. Those have mostly
been replaced by synthetic chemicals. The other ingredients
came from plants, most notably flowers.
The area around Grasse, France, is renowned for its
flower plantations. Farmers like Joseph Mul have been

B. Write answers to the questions.

1. What are the two main ingredients in
perfume? _ ______________________
2. Why do perfume makers use fixatives?
________________________________
3. Which French city is famous for its flower
farms? __________________________
4. What are the four advantages of synthetics?
________________________________
5. What percentage of new perfumes
succeed?_ _______________________
C. Make a list of other products designed to
make people feel better about themselves.
Share your list with the class and talk about
whether the products really do what theyre
supposed to do.

Writing
A. Create a magazine ad for a new perfume
for men or for women. You will need to:
Give the perfume a name.
Draw a simple picture or cut out magazine
photographs to illustrate your ad.
Write a few sentences about the perfume.
B. When youre finished, present your ad to
the class.

Goal 4 Evaluate the

way advertising
creates desire
for products

A woman picks night-blooming jasmine flowers at dawn in

a field in India.

Choose a luxury item and talk with a

partner about the way it is marketed.
What forms of advertising are used?
How do the advertisers convince
people to buy something they dont
really need?
Lesson D 83