Beverly Hills Launches City Perfume

Usually when you think of a city's smells, the odors of garbage trucks and sewage pipes come to mind. But the infamous City of Beverly Hills is planning to change that notion immediately with their very own perfume line. Hoping to further promote the city's trademarked brown shield logo, the perfumes, launched this week at Greystone Mansion, are the first ever city-owned fragrance.

The fragrance is the first part of a multi-year-long dream of branding the city -- and what better luxurious line to associate the city's glamorous name with than cosmetics?

Beverly Hills Mayor, Jimmy Delshad said, "This is a center of fashion, sophistication, energy. We decided this was the right product for us."

The flier for the product advertises, "Three fragrances as captivating as the city itself."

You don't say.

With a hefty price tag of $120 a pop, the fragrance definitely reflects the posh living costs of the locals and rivals the prices of top-tier designer fragrances. Competing against the private sector of cosmetics, people are wondering whether we really want the government subsidizing beauty products. Is this the first step to not just city branding but becoming a communist society?

The perfumes are only the beginning of the city's plan to turn their shield logo into a brand. Soon enough there will be a Beverly Hills skin care line too (not kidding).

In addition to a men's cologne priced at $75 launching in department stores next year, the city (or brand?) will be coming out with a parallel skin care line featuring hydration skin treatments from $50 to $100.

The three-fragrance set was developed by Swiss perfumers who tried to evoke scents that were "authentically Beverly Hills." California flower species including wild rose, sweet pea, honeysuckle, peony and red cedar were used in the scents' concoction.

Theses fragrances are meant to "evoke what life is like for the Beverly Hills woman," said managing director of JT Brands, Geoffrey Thompson.

The first is called "Must Have," which will reflect the spontaneous, energetic lifestyle of a day spent in the California sun. "Rodeo" is for the nights spent on the red carpet (which is our typical Friday, right?), and is also named after the city's famous street, Rodeo Drive, packed with designer stores and most notable from the movie "Pretty Woman." And the final scent is called "Iconic" representing a "sexy, soft, playfulness of the night."

The bottles were designed by architect Zoltan Pali who also designed the city's cultural center.

Mayor Delshad said "Iconic" is his wife's favorite scent, and believes these products are just the right type of branding the city needs to promote the name of Beverly Hills around the world.

Now that you mention it, who wouldn't want to smell like Mayor Delshad's wife?

Pam Danzinger, president of Unity Marketing, said, "When I think of Beverly Hills, I think of ground zero in conspicuous consumption lifestyle. Every city has souvenirs, so for Beverly Hills, why not some perfume? It makes sense."

Thompson said, "Very few cities could do this. People have reverence for Beverly Hills. It captures the imagination of visitors from overseas."

This is probably true as I imagine not very many would want to smell like the wet grunge of San Francisco, the sweaty humidity of New York City, and the cows of Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Beverly Hills, known for their lavish penchant for vanity and movie-star glamour, may be the best, if not only, city to have its own perfume line.

So the questions beg to be asked: Will the taxes in Beverly Hills go down? Will the parking cops lay off on the exorbitant $55 parking tickets? Will the homeless have adequate shelters?

The royalty proceeds will be split three-ways between the city, the city's Chamber of Commerce and the marketing firm, Bradford Licensing. Dan Walsh, chief executive of the Chamber, says the city hopes to gain $100,000 per year from the beauty line.

"Forget about size for a minute," said Mayor Delshad. "This is a world capital: New York, Paris, London, Beverly Hills. We really want to make a splash."

By Sharon J. Yi