Emily Blunt New Face Of YSL's Opium Fragrance (VIDEO)

Celebrity fragrance endorsements are a dime a dozen. But Emily Blunt, the completely likable, uncontroversial British actress, is about to become the celebrity face of an unconventional perfume: Yves Saint Laurent's Opium.

The Telegraph reports that Blunt has been chosen as the star of the Opium's next campaign, which will "unveil a fiery, almost reckless woman with magnetic seduction, that nobody or nothing can resist," said Renaud de Lesquen, president of YSL & Designer Brands.

Almost reckless indeed. Although Blunt may not know it, the scent has had quite a rocky, reckless history. First debuted in 1977, Opium came under fire in 2000 for its ads featuring a very naked Sophie Dahl. As the BBC reported, the billboard invited 730 complaints to Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which subsequently banned it.

Then this past February, another Opium ad came under fire. A TV spot featuring a woman dancing ecstatically was deemed "irresponsible and unacceptable for broadcast" by the ASA because of dance moves that simulated drug use.

The ASA said in a statement, "We were concerned that in the context of the ad, Belle [played by French actress Melanie Thierry] running her finger down her inner arm could be seen to simulate the injection of opiates into the body."

We doubt Blunt will be stripping down or mimicking drug use in her perfume campaign, but we hope execs at YSL have enough sense to not make this go-round with Opium too fiery and reckless.

Read more about YSL's selection of Blunt at Telegraph.co.uk.

WATCH the aforementioned Belle D'Opium TV ad:

Comments

[proudnative]

11:03 PM on 10/10/2011

Are you serious? This is the controversial ad? Lyrical dance? It looks like one of the solos on So You Think You Can Dance. This would be NBD in America, and Lord knows we're all puritanical over here....

[lonerngr88]

02:48 PM on 09/22/2011

"A TV spot featuring a woman dancing ecstatically was deemed "irresponsible and unacceptable for broadcast" by the ASA because of dance moves that simulated drug use. " They are worried that dance moves in perfume ad simulate drug use??? Don't they know that most of the chemicals that make up perfume are oil (as in petroleum) based and known to be hazardous materials, carcinogenic or neurotoxic?

[Tommy T-]

02:05 PM on 09/22/2011

I just love people who have nothing better to do with their pitiful lives than to sit around and find things to feel indignant about or to make petty things things "controversial". I guess what I love more are the pathetic organizations created to entertain the complaints of these pitiful people and enforce Morality Standards to justify their phony-balony jobs. People--get real lives and real jobs. If you don't like something you see--don't look at it.

[themiddleistheproblem]

08:52 AM on 09/26/2011

Kinda like you, here?

[intellectualTradition]

03:06 PM on 10/10/2011

i don't think you fully understand the life cycle of the reptiles known as progressives or liberals. That is what they do, that is all they do......find things to be indignant over.

[missmaizeybelle]

12:36 PM on 09/22/2011

I never saw the perfume as being controversial but in truth this scent is awful.Headache inducing.

[silkscreen001]

12:20 PM on 09/22/2011

I wear Black Orchid. Expensive? Yes. But I am worth it. lol lol

[silkscreen001]

12:18 PM on 09/22/2011

I wore Opium for years long ago. Never gave one thought to using drugs. Sometimes perfume is just perfume people.

[360Dunk]

10:52 AM on 09/22/2011

A woman's body odor and musty clothes can be somewhat disguised by perfume. But is it asking too much to just bathe and do laundry so we don't feel like our sinuses are snorting your eau de toilette?

[jimmybond]

09:59 AM on 09/22/2011

Did anyone else notice the Illuminati reference at the 17-18 second mark? "Hiding in plain sight" are we?

[anniee214]

01:15 PM on 09/22/2011

I watched it several times and don't see what you are referring to. Please explain.

[jimmybond]

02:05 PM on 09/22/2011

@Anniee214...if you pause the video at the 18 sec mark you can see Emily Blunt make a hand gesture in the light (music stops for a second too) that is commonly referred to as either the "all seeing eye", "666 hand symbol", and/or the "eye of Horus"...If you freeze the frame and also Google any of these hand symbols you can see the similarity...please don't take it too serious, I just thought it was a bit odd.

[themiddleistheproblem]

08:54 AM on 09/26/2011

Strange that it was highlighted and the only image on the screen. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I see these hand gestures all the time. Maybe too much history channel...

[Bandit29]

09:41 AM on 09/22/2011

I don't care what type of perfume or after shave as the case may be that someone wears. I just ask that they don't bathe in it. The other day I was overpowered in a store by several people who don't understand the concept of "subtle". Perfume should not linger after you like a jet trail.

[anniee214]

01:19 PM on 09/22/2011

You and me both, Bandit!! And, men, wash your hands after applying after shave. When you shake hands with someone, your "scent" remains on their hand. Before I retired there was a guy in my office who wore way too much and if he used my phone, all I could smell all day was his cologne. Disgusting. Just take a shower and save the scent for romance--only use enough so the other person has to get close to smell it!!

[IMeanWhat1]

09:29 AM on 09/22/2011

Would Yves Saint Laurent have selected her? That’s like Kim Kardashian replacing Madge for Palmolive soap. It is just not a fit. http://bit.ly/r5z4L7

[gdzilla2]

09:10 AM on 09/22/2011

omg people just read whatever crap they want into everything just to stir the pot and make a big deal out of nothing.

[themiddleistheproblem]

08:58 AM on 09/26/2011

And then there are those who make a big deal about those making a big deal. Who's more pathetic? I say the latter.

[zevon]

08:27 AM on 09/22/2011

The fragrance isn't controversial, the ADS are controversial. I've seen more seductive dancing on DWTS or Caribbean parades.

[Elroy Jetson]

08:05 AM on 09/22/2011

Opium - Blunt. Why do these words sound so natural together? LOL!

[NoLinos]

07:46 AM on 09/22/2011

Opium has been reformulated to the point of irrelevance. Its new chemical ingredients render it barely discernible - a thin, cheap imitation of the original Opium of the '70's.

Thanks to greedy corporate perfume giants, harmless ingredients like citrus & clove are now banned in European perfume manufacture; thus forcing the substitution of manufacturers' own, patented chemicals. American firms like Lauder have followed suit in order to sell in Europe & collect a bigger percentage off the top (harder to source real, quality ingredients).

This is why department store fragrances suddenly smell horrible & nothing like customers' last bottle. Very few good fragrances left, most by the few independent houses who still use oakmoss, eugenol, etc. Or vintage.

Perfume is a dying industry, destroyed from within by greedy manufacturers, the fading luxury houses they service (Chanel, Dior) and complicit EU officials. IFRA needs to end regulations so new, up and coming perfumers can meet consumers' desire for actual quality products.

[avery t]

09:07 AM on 09/22/2011

I spend more to wear Creed (however, I use so little that one 2.5 bottle lasts me ten to eleven months worn daily). To my nose, Creed smells much less industrial than YSL, Issey, D&G, Polo RL, CK, and others. Of all of those, D&G Light Blue is the only one I'll wear, but even that smells chemical.

[mlondeaux]

09:37 AM on 09/22/2011

NoLinos - I also noticed that perfumes are smelling more like chemicals that fragrance. My favorite, Anais Anais, smells nothing like it did 20 years ago. I couldn't figure out why so thanks for the explanation. Now it all makes "scents."

[themiddleistheproblem]

09:00 AM on 09/26/2011

20 years ago, perfume didn't give me a headache.

[JamesBondQuixote]

02:40 AM on 09/22/2011

Aaaah, the lovely Emily. Something about that girl -- her face, her looks, her talent -- makes me like her a lot. I first saw her in "Irresistible". Meowwrr!

[mlondeaux]

10:17 AM on 09/22/2011

James - I also became a fan after watching her in My Summer of Love. Then after seeing her in The Devil Wears Prada she became my favorite actress. Although her British accent makes her sound a little snooty, she is actually quite unaffected by fame. She's very smart and also an accomplished cellist, an instrument I became fascinated with after seeing the movie Hilary and Jackie. I never thought of the cello as a particularly sensuous instrument until I saw Emily Watson playing it (as Jacqueline Du Pre, a real life British cellist.) Perhaps that's why Emily Blunt became fascinated with it as well.