The scent of success: image-sound relations and audio-logo-visuality in Baz Luhrmann’s two promotional films for Chanel No.5 perfume

This article analyses Baz Luhrmann’s two short promotional films for Chanel No 5 perfume (2004 and 2014) in terms of the aesthetic styles deployed for their promotional functions. The article begins by providing a contextual introduction to Luhrmann’s oeuvre and to aspects of Michel Chion’s notion of ‘audio-logo-visuality’ (2009) relevant to the director’s oeuvre. Section I discusses Luhrmann’s first Chanel No 5 commercial, made in 2004, the nature of its music track and the role of narration in the production. Section II considers Luhrmann’s reworking of the song ‘You’re the one that I want’ (from the 1978 film Grease) for his 2014 promotional film. Our discussion of the latter details the manner in which the audio-lyrical text is complemented and extended in the visual text to promote its product through a complex cluster of associations. The analyses identify two contrasting approaches to the use of music in the films’ promotion of the perfume product and two distinct patterns of audio-logo-visuality.