Demand for the fragrance has increased in the weeks since the trial began, and in just one month, searches for the perfume on Google increased by 48 percent, going from 823,000 searches in oct to 1.2 million in Nov.
It seems like an example of the Butterfly Effect theory: a trial ends in Fairfax County, Virginia, and sales of a perfume skyrocket around the world. Both events are related: the protagonists of the trial are the actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
The image of Dior's Sauvage perfume is, since its launch in 2015, Johnny Depp himself. Throughout the actor's defamation trial against his ex-wife, the French house has maintained its contractual relationship with the actor, while other companies terminated their contracts or fired him from their projects: Disney decided not to count on him to play again.
Jack Sparrow in a new Pirates of the Caribbean film, and Warner Bros. fired him from Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, replacing him with the Danish Mads Mikkelsen. Now, some of Depp's followers are buying the Dior fragrance of which he is the image as a show of support.
The brand confirms the increase in sales to S Moda, but they do not have information on whether there is a correlation with the trial as they do not have such recent data. Since it was launched in 2015, the brand explains, sales of the perfume have grown non-stop, with peaks at Christmas or Father's Day, which made Sauvage one of the five best-selling products. In the last three years, the increase has been much higher, and since last Christmas it has become the best-selling perfume in the world, surpassing any women's perfume.
According to reports from the American media WWD, demand for Dior's Sauvage fragrance has increased in the weeks following the start of the trial and, in just one month, searches for the perfume on Google increased by 48 percent, going from 823,000 searches. in March to 1.2 million in April, the month in which the trial began. Despite the numerous criticisms that Dior has faced for having Depp as its image, the brand has remained firm in its decision to keep the actor.
The perfume advertisement on the brand's official YouTube channel has accumulated more than 92 million views. In it, we can see Johnny Depp in the desert, in the company of wolves, playing the electric guitar before saying: "In the desert, fearless, and human."
The comments on the video are, for the most part, displays of support for Johnny Depp, some under the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp and applause to the brand for keeping it as an image: «I went to several stores throughout the city to find the perfume and they were all gone. left without Dior Sauvage. Go team Johnny. "Justice must prevail." A year after Depp became the face of Dior, Amber Heard filed for divorce alleging that Depp had subjected her to "emotional, verbal and physical abuse."
Eau Sauvage, the "father" perfume of the current Sauvage fragrance, was launched on the market in 1966. The notes chosen for the perfume revolutionized the idea of men's perfume, since they included floral touches similar to jasmine, common in feminine fragrances but unusual in the masculine ones.
That note could give clues about where this new perfume was going: it claimed a new masculinity starring a cosmopolitan, sophisticated and modern man, far from the one who wore thick and heavy perfume that was marked on his suit. Proof of this were the first illustrations, signed by René Gruau, who chose slender, shaven men, walking with a towel on their shoulders and with hardly any body hair.
Eau Sauvage was an instant success and, over the years, always remained on the list of best-selling perfumes. Over time, they moved from illustrations to photography, choosing celebrities of the time to become ambassadors for the perfume. The most representative face was chosen in 2009, when the brand decided to turn the French actor Alain Delon into an image, using a photograph of the actor that was taken the same year the perfume was launched. Delon managed to recapture the essence of Eau Sauvage through French chic and elegant European seduction.
