14-year-old Elle Fanning, actress and sister to Dakota, is now the face of Lolita Lempicka, the fragrance by the French designer of the same name. Lempicka's legal name is Josiane Maryse Pividal, but she began working under the pseudonym as an homage to Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, the 1950s novel chronicling a middle-aged professor's sexual relationship with his pre teenage step daughter.
While there's nothing overtly sexual about Fanning's campaign, the juxtaposition of the young fresh-faced Fanning and the name of the perfume. That, and the way that the campaign's commercial, directed by Yoann Lemoine, is fairly sensual, displaying Fanning as she runs through the woods with closeups on her lips and face.
Overall, the commercial, which eventually depicts Fanning going mad as she trips on poisonous wood berries, is engaging and beautifully shot, so it's unfortunate that the name and its connotations make it so difficult to enjoy. Then there's the whole issue of a 14-year-old baby child convincing adult women to buy cosmetics. Aren't girls Elle's age supposed to shoplifting the Justin Bieber perfume from Claire's and leaving us adults to our women's work?
Elle Fanning Is Lolita In New Perfume Video [Buzzfeed]