Yes, I know, there is a photo of it elsewhere on this site, but I couldn’t really not at least highlight what remains Sophie’s most famous advert, could I?
Sophie’s ad for the “Opium” fragrance is probably her most well known. Not only that, but it is also one of the most recognized adverts of all time, despite being famously “banned” on release and later becoming the eighth most complained about advert of all time during a 2012 poll.
You don’t really need me to explain why. The photo should do it for you. Sophie, naked but for some high heels and bling, legs (sort of) akimbo, it’s publication in late 2000 saw the moral majority get up in arms, who figured that a nude woman plastered on a billboard was more shocking than the latest blood splattered shoot-em-up movie they’d seen in their local cinema.
The photo was shot by Steven Meisel, best known for his work with Madonna, during Sophie’s brief ‘red hair’ phase in September 2000, and published soon after. Opium was an Yves Saint Laurent perfume, and it’s creative director, Tom Ford, hoped the advert would recall the golden age of glamour, giving “a nod to it’s history of sexual provocation and female liberation”. I can still remember seeing it on a massive billboard outside the tube station at Upminster Bridge, but I was not one of the 948 people who complained to the Advertising Standards Agency - instead, I was one of many men (and women) whose jaw dropped instead at the sheer beauty of it, and then simply went about my daily business thereafter.
It was only really banned from being on display in public, officially because it’s sexual overtones were deemed “unsuitable for children” although there were stories of the image being too distracting to motorists, who were rumoured to be crashing their cars whilst gawping at Miss Dahl on the side of the road. Fashion magazines were given the nod to run the ad, and it appeared with great regularity throughout 2000 and 2001. For a so-called banned advert, it was seen more times than - say - her Jennifer Nicholson shoot.
Officially, the image runs “right to left” - in other words, Sophie’s head appears on the right of the photo. The Opium logo appeared in different positions in different versions, sometimes below Sophie’s head, sometimes above her knees. The version above, showing it in reverse, was published like this in the 2004 book “Tom Ford : Ten Years”.
Magazine versions often were printed in landscape, across two pages, but if the advert was only to take up a single page in portrait mode, it would thus be spun round so Sophie’s head appeared at the top of the page - again, the logo would then be printed wherever appropriate, usually at the bottom of the ad.
As mentioned on the “Ad Campaigns” pages, a hyper rare alternate second shot was also published overseas at the time, but I still can’t find it on the net again! Sophie herself has commented on the iconic image, saying “the photograph is beautiful. It was seen as being anti-women, when in fact I think it is very empowering to women”. Anti-sex campaigners out there, take note!
