Valentino’s New Fragrance Rock ‘n Rose

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Above is the bottle and accompanying ad campaign for Valentino’s new fragrace Rock ‘n Rose. Apparently, US consumer-goods company Procter & Gamble (P&G) is making a concerted effort to recruit younger female consumers to the Valentino brand with the introduction of Rock ‘n Rose.

While the “rose” aspect of the branding concept resonates formidably with the Valentino brand umbrella, I question the compatibility of the “rock”. I mean, Valentino is known for frills, tiers of tulle, and a pretty not found anywhere else. This “rock”, instead of conveying “edgy modernity”, says “dated cliche” – the sort of thing you could imagine if Valentino said (Note: Read as if you were from Venice) “Today’s a gurla vant to v a rocker wuman, she is z tuffer wuman.” It’s the sort of old world thinking that led to shoulder pads in the 80s – a woman who aspires to have power and respect cannot be an outwardly feminine or unabashedly girly woman. And look how that turned out.

To add to that, I think the popularity of ultra-feminine stars such as Rachel Bilson, Emmy Rossum, and Tinsley Mortimer prove that modern and edgy doesn’t automatically translate to hardness and this archetypal rocker girl. Will it bomb? Probably not. But what do I know?