Ad for YSL Opium Perfume Deemed To Use Secret Junkie Code {Perfume Images & Adverts}

 

In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority have once more shown their clout by banning a recent perfume advert for the flanker to the 1977 fragrance Opium by Yves Saint Laurent called Belle d'Opium (check out the commercial.) The reason for the ban is that the TV commercial reportedly showcases in its choreography two moments alluding to opiate consumption. In the first one, French actress Mélanie Thierry points and caresses the crook of her arm; the ASA think that it is a reference to heroin use. In the second incriminated episode, the actress writhes on the floor of a place which looks like a hammam or mosque (someone should take a closer look at that too and get back to us about the allusive use of sacred places in ads)...

 

This is seen as a secret code for junkie behavior and a description of the reaction to drug use. It might well be, but to the unassuming eye it could just as well be an erotic episode in a Salome's dance or an allusion to Sufi extasy.

 

A Tom Ford advert for Opium featuring Sophie Dahl (see above) had already caused the ire of British authorities due to its pornographic connotations and in spite of its chic stylings.

"The ASA said that the image of the finger running down the woman's arm "could be seen to simulate the injection of opiates into the body". In addition the later scene, which included the woman writhing on the floor, could be seen to "simulate the effect of drugs on the body".

The ASA banned the ad concluding that it was "irresponsible and unacceptable for broadcast"."

Read more at The Guardian: Opium perfume ad banned over 'simulated drug use.'