Another day, another surfer starring in a perfume ad. This time it’s Gabe Medina, he of the shaven pits, who is centre-stage for Ralph Lauren’s new scent Deep Blue. Now just why mainstream marketeers think surfers smell great is a mystery. I mean, haven’t they ever smelled a wetty bucket in the back of any surfer’s car? Yet still they persist in trying to sell scented water to the masses through the medium of shralp. Don’t believe us? Here we trawl through the mist.
Gabriel Medina Ralph Lauren
Medina, along with Leila Jabour (the model recently married to pro surfer Kiron Jabour), plus two other dudes head to Tahiti, do some airs and help you discover, “a powerful ‘parfum’ inspired by the cool deep ocean, refreshing ocean mists and lush island scents that fill the air.” And who doesn’t love a powerful ‘parfum’? The bigger question is why doesn’t Gabby get the girl? He’s the one doing the alley-oops, not the other handsome turkey?
Danny Fuller Chanel
Fuller was one of the first, and maybe only, surfers to maintain his credibility among big-wave hellmen while working for over a decade in the fashion industry. He’s best known as being the face of the Chanel “Allure” campaign seen above (shot by best director Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow no less). When he isn’t packing Pipe barrels, Danny spends his time between Los Angeles, New York and Hawaii, chasing waves or front covers, depending on the season.
Gisele and Chanel
Maybe on the back of Fuller’s good work, Chanel had director Baz Luhrmann take Gisele surfing the beachies of Montauk and offshore reefs like Cloudbreak in a convoluted campaign that saw no one come out smelling like roses, or perfume, for that matter.
Laird And Davidoff
In the 2003 print ads for Davidoff (tagline “The Power Of Cool”) Laird goes full Laird. At this stage he was at the height of considerable powers and for an 18-month period, even his shits didn’t stink. Still, who wouldn’t use the power of cool, if you’ve got it?
Parko, Fanning, Durbidge and Kerr and Ocean Mist
In a rare piece of surf marketing genius and piss-taking Joel Parkinson, Mick Fanning, Josh Kerr and Bede Durbidge pranked their Instagram in 2015 for a men’s cologne called Ocean Mist. The joke, inevitably was on us. It was actually a promo for Balter, which they sold last year for about 8 billion dollars
On the same theme of perfume pisstakes, this hasn’t much to do with surfing, but my snowboarding filmer pal Johno Verity made this beauty a few years ago. Amazingly this didn’t go viral, but surely there is still time? If I had the choice between Le Dic or Gaby’s Deep Blue I sure know what I’d buy.
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