Parlux, the company that holds the license for the Paris Hilton fragrance line, has announced that the popular socialite will be honored with a “Celebrity of the Year” award at this year’s Fifi Awards ceremony, sponsored by The Fragrance Foundation, in May. This is a new award category for the Fifis.
Neil Katz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Parlux said, “We are extremely pleased that Paris has been selected for this initial prestigious award. Parlux has recently renewed its fragrance license with Ms. Hilton for an additional 5-year period and we look forward to the continued success of this brand.”
(via parlux, found via happi)
See also: the Fragrance Award page
45 Comments
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oh wait….can't type…..too…busy….GAGGING…
funny you say that.
the first word that came to my head was, “barf.”
Daisy & Dea, we can gag all we like, but would have to say this was a very wise idea on the part of the Fragrance Foundation. They've been trying very hard to make the Fifi Awards more relevant to consumers, and this will probably go a long way…will get Paris Hilton to the ceremony, if nothing else, which will net them plenty of publicity.
But should add: my initial reaction was to chuckle, so didn't mean to be chastising you guys or anything, in case it read that way!
I didn't take it that way.
I don't know- it's just the whole idea looks like they made strategy the enemy of authenticity. i guess i'm just being grumpy and cynical.
she seems to invade every facet of an american woman's life these days. i try to avoid her, but she keeps finding me!
I am proud to say I can't remember how any of her fragrances smell like LOL
When will they learn to stop encouraging her? Stop giving her awards, stop giving her tv shows, stop taking pictures of her, stop paying attention to her and maybe she'll go away…*sigh* No, probably not. You need nuclear-strenght anti-biotics to get rid of something like her.
Do they WANT to be a joke to anyone who cares about perfume as an art? Is that the kind of relevance and publicity they want? Sheesh.
I've noted that those people NOT in the perfume industry and those that are once in a while consumers are attracted to the Paris Hilton brand.
This will go over well for the average consumer. But those that aren't the average consumer will have a gag-reflex just because of the name and all the jokes associated with Paris Hilton.
The fragrances are forgettable but Can Can is cotton candy and the men's fragrance is a AdG clone. But that's really it.
Her popularity is still mostly a mystery to me. Can't blame you for being grumpy & cynical.
I remember Heiress. That should be a song title, no?
She will never go away.
Well, you know, the Fragrance Foundation is not really about perfume as an art (although they're adding an artistic category to the Fifis this year as well) — that's not their mission, or at least, not their primary mission.
As for relevance and publicity, I think we have to bear in mind that they don't really need to establish their “relevance” to perfumistas…perfumistas already (mostly) know who they are. They need publicity with perfume consumers in general, and perfume consumers, let's face it, are more interested in Paris Hilton than in many of the little “art” brands perfumistas care about.
oh no, Robin, you are kind of like the “designated driver” around here….we all go out and cause trouble and you make sure we get home safe. Every now and then we just spontaneously pop open a six pack of snark.
Just as an aside, I think where and how you spend your dollars–particularly the discretionary ones–not only makes a statement about personal values or standards but also supports (or discourages ) in a tangible (financial) way (even if it is miniscule) things/activities/behaviors of our society. I find Ms. Hilton to be an offensive individual and I will never purchase her products, I would not wear them if they were given to me. That is my choice but I would never ever ever condemn someone else for buying or wearing her fragrances. I will ,however, occasionally give in to the urge to make snarky comments about her and/or her general lack of decorum. (ok, I give in the uge frequently)
~~hopping off my soapbox now~~~
The “average consumer” is probably far more important to the Fragrance Foundation than perfumistas are, and for good reason.
I did not like Can Can as much as I like cotton candy, though.
death, taxes and Paris Hilton? pass the zoloft please
LOL — hey, I don't mind snark one little bit. Everybody (me included) can snark all they like. Just trying to be a little realistic because I think people expect more from the Fragrance Foundation than they're likely to get. Every year perfumistas complain about who wins the Fifis, but the Fifis really ARE the “Oscars of the fragrance industry”, just as advertised, and just as you ought not expect the Oscar to go to the best movie, you ought not expect the Fifi to go to the best perfume.
This year they are adding a “Perfume Extraordinaire” category that explicitly rewards the “best juice”, which I think makes it pretty clear that the criteria for their annual “best fragrance” awards is not the “best juice”.
marketing….advertising….color,motion and noise…
Robin, I bow to your pragmatic wisdom. And yet…and yet…
This is still an industry that hopes to “enchant” the consumer, still an industry that had to admit (via prestige lines and fragrances like Angel) that cultivating a smaller but deeply devoted fan base can be just as profitable, if not more so, than scattershot Hilton-style popular appeal. If awarding Hilton is an attempt to capture some of her fan base for the Fifi's it seems like a deeply misguided attempt. I mean, really, can you imagine the average tweener giving a fig about whether or not her perfume won a Fifi? To make Paris Hilton a star in the same year that they finally give an award based on the perfume itself (and that last kind of makes my head explode) seems more indicative of the industry's identity crisis than any viable strategy.
Didn't mean to imply that you applauded their strategy, either! Just chiming in in favor of the snark and nausea, I suppose…
*Sigh*
Signing off…
If any poor soul ever actually bought a perfume because it won a FiFi, she should get her money back.
My first reaction was: you've got to be kidding! I wonder if any award winners will return them or refuse them?
I hear you, I don't get it either, but she does have quite a following.
An SA and I were talking about her recently, he mentioned all of her promotional appearances in SF were blockbuster-packed events. People came out of the woodwork to see her….. sigh. It is a wise marketing move on the part of the Frag Foundation, anything to get/keep interest going I suppose….
Yep…people line up around the block just to see her.
I think they might well hope that tweeners will care. The Fifis have their own MySpace page now, after all, and can't think of why else they would be using that forum to present news if they didn't think it would help capture the attention of a pretty young audience.
I don't know if I think it is indicative of any sort of identity crisis. I mean, like any big industry they are serving different audiences. To go back to movies, you can have the Oscars plus the various festivals & award systems that concentrate on independent films, right? The thing about the fragrance world is that we really don't have anything analagous to the Sundance Festival. And again, I keep snarking about the Oscars, but the simple fact is that MANY MANY people do care, very much, about who won the Oscar, and what they wore while winning it, and who did their hair, etc etc. And I do think many people believe that a film that won an Oscar must be a great film.
And so don't know why trying to pull some of that sort of hullabaloo over to the Fifis isn't a smart strategy, although whether or not it will work is another matter.
Gosh, like who? I mean, the big winner last year was Marc Jacobs Daisy, and the year before that it was Juicy Couture. The sorts of perfume houses that would return an award because Paris Hilton was given one aren't winning Fifis anyway.
once I was looking up a song of her's on youtube and one of the comments was like “Hates should leave her alone!!!! She own a multi-million dollar perfume company!!!”
and then comments like “I totes agree!!!”
they might care if she wins a Fifi
If they're going to have a Celebrity of the Year award anyway they're obviously trying to get attention from an audience that isn't really interested in perfume as an ~*art*~
also, BellaSugar had a fragrance of 2008 poll and all put 1 was put out by a celeb if I remember correctly
Very true. She will not go away because we created her, or at least our society did. I like to think of her as a social phenomenon or barometer, kinda like a horseman of the Apocalypse.
Although other generations and cultures must have made a celebrity out of someone who did nothing to be famous other than being famous…. right?
Well, if the Fifi's had even a smidge of the cachet that the Oscars do I would totally agree with you, Robin (hey, I LOVE the Oscars!) and it may well work (cf Krok's comment) what do I know? But to me it seems like it's all happening in a vacuum anyway, since no one seems to know or understand the Fifi's. The general public doesn't know they exist. They baffle and alienate the hardcore fans. They don't even seem important to the brands themselves. For example, I've never seen them used as a promotional tool, you know: “Daisy, Fifi award winner 2008.” Where are the little stickers on the bottles like the Newberrry Medal stickers on children's books? Where the proud acknowledgment of the award on the counter display? Please do tell me if I'm wrong about this.
On the other hand, I *have* seen blown up print outs from The Guide and Chandler Burr's column.
And–hey–I'd love to see a Perfume Sundance! If my lottery ticket works out I promise to produce!
The “horseman of the Apocalypse”, LOL…you guys are cracking me up.
Oh, I'd agree (although I mostly detest the Oscars, not like I've kept that a secret, LOL). But I think that cachet is what they're working towards. And as near as I can tell, last year is the first year they made a serious effort to reach out to consumers in a big way.
I see the little logo for the Cosmetic Executive Women awards frequently — like you, can't think of ever seeing a Fifi logo. And to get to that kind of cachet, I think they might have to consider changing the name anyway. Fifi? Don't think that's going to work.
Yes, I'd say they're interested in an audience that sees perfume as a consumer product, like any other beauty product. Surprised a BellaSugar poll got any non-celeb perfume, but guessing if they did, it was one of the ones that won a Fifi like Daisy or Juicy Couture.
LOL!!! the Celebre-tante of the Apocolypse……Paris Hilton (scantily clad) in an overpriced sportscar (possibly inebriated) wielding a very large bottle of flora-fruity perfume in one hand (and her Fifi in the other) as a harbinger of the End…..yeah, I can totally see it….
no they had more than 1 non celeb scent
Harajuku Lovers had the most votes though.
Most people aren't ~*adventurous*~. They stick to names they recognize (celebrities or designers like Dior and D&G)
At MTV's Europe Music Awards they had a category called Best Act Ever. They have a long list and then the 5 artists with the most votes are the actual nominees. The long list was half bands that have fanatical fan bases, but obviously not deserving of the title.
The nominees were Tokio Hotel (who I love, but seriously??), Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Green Day, U2 and the winner was Rick Astley. Obviously MTV was ok with the category being a huge joke as long as it meant ratings.
Rick Astley! That's great.
I am surprisingly a layperson who knew about he Fifis before I got here! I was watching Tova Borgnine on QVC and she was showing footage of the awards when she won one for Tova Night. I thought it was pretty cool and she was quite pleased. That was a nice fragrance, too, and I ordered it unsniffed based on the idea of it winning a perfume award.
Glad I didn't do that for Juicy Couture.
Oh, no, PLEASE stop encouraging her!!!
I would bet most people who win them are quite pleased…regardless of how many consumers know about the awards, people in the perfume industry certainly know about them and consider them an achievement.
She will never go away.
Thank the Lord I took marketing in college and can see the reasoning behind a lot of the ploys. And my husband's now teaching agricultural marketing, which means the subject comes up at the dinner table a lot, which means that we're raising some very advertising-skeptical children.
Which is GOOD. (IMO.)
Daisy, “snark!” You can pop open some snark with me anytime you want!!!
I looooooooove me some Rick. Seriously. I may be the only person in the world who actually enjoys getting Rickrolled.
He IS a nostalgic guilty pleasure, though.
LOL! That's so funny. I was thinking about my response to you last night, just kind of turning over the issue in my mind, and thought — “Fifi. Well that's the problem right there, isn't it. Who wants their luxury product to get an award from a pink French poodle?”
Exactly, LOL — a poodle is probably what most people think of. They need something that bestows the proper sort of gravitas, although what that would be, I don't know. I don't like the German “Duftstars” either. France is using “Grand Prix du Parfum” which sounds good to English ears but probably dull as dirt to French ears.
At might be just me, but I reckon we need to declare a moritorium on Paris Hilton. We need to pretend she doesn't exist.
who??
(snicker)