Parlez-Vous AUBADE?

18 February 2017

Since 1992, the voluptuous Aubade woman has been teaching the world a thing or two about the fine art of romance;

...the famed French brand's Lessons in Seduction campaign ran for 25 years and 184 individual advertisements. The label is now launching a historic new chapter in its communications strategy. While continuing to push the boundaries of seduction, Aubade is now showing there is life beyond school.

Debuting in 2017 – ahead of the label's 60th anniversary next year – the new campaign centers around the phrase, Parlez-vous Aubade? While written in French, it is a basic saying that is universally understood, opening up a dialogue between the brand and the public, both male and female. With this phrase, Aubade becomes a part of the global language of seduction – playful, flirty and full of life. Our French sister magazine, Intima, spoke with Aubade's Deputy Managing Director, Martina Brown.

Aubade has decided to go in a new direction, while building upon the 25-year foundation of its famous Lessons in Seduction campaign
The Lessons in Seduction campaign in France owed its success to an artistic photo of the female body in a suggestive pose combined with a cheeky tagline. This association between words and images gave the Aubade woman a unique, evocative personality that created a dialogue between the label and the public. Aubade needed to build upon this conversation in a new way in order to breathe life into it. The objective was to develop a new long-term, international campaign that expanded upon the brand's famed quality and iconic visuals: the signature black-and-white artistic photo of the female form; boldness and allure; and its French roots. Aubade parle français! We wanted a campaign suitable for print or web, as well as one that had the ability to go viral, in order to maximize the brand's visibility.

How did you come up with this new tagline?
Parlez-vous Aubade? is more than a new slogan, it represents Aubade's outlook on 21st century love and romance. Men and woman aren't the same as ten, twenty or thirty years ago. The have changed and evolved, as have their relationships, constantly adapting to new trends and technologies, which they now use to seduce one another.
Today more than ever, romance is a game in which each player takes on a different role. Instead of following a set of rules, today's lovers can act however they like: a woman can be a hopeless romantic one day, and a femme fatale or prim-and-proper girl-next-door the next. Nothing is fixed. In courtship, signals are numerous, varied and totally free. That brings on the question of what is today's language of seduction? Thanks to new technologies such as the internet or smart phones, men and women are conversing in a way that is more direct and less complex, yet with greater imagination. We are in the era of gifs and flirty messages with few words and an abundance of images. With this return of free and joyful body language, Aubade can jump into the current with limitless possibilities. There is no longer a need for words: a gesture of the shoulders; the snap of elastic against the body; a hand the glides over a lace-covered breast – these are more than signals, they are invitations, from your body, as well as from Aubade.