Century Plaza Perfume Chaos

Craig Clemens shares the story of a brilliant marketing campaign for Tova perfume that created chaos at the Century Plaza Hotel.

"Gary takes out a full page ad in the LA Times and the headline is 'This wife of famous movie star swears under oath her new perfume does not contain an illegal sexual stimulant.' The subhead said 'And she is so confident in this she's willing to prove it by giving away 10,000 sample bottles on this day at this time at the Century Plaza Hotel.'

So they put up the ad and the phones at the Century Plaza Hotel just start ringing and ringing by people wanting to know about this event. This kept going and going and they realized it was going to be chaotic. The fire department comes the day of and they shut down the street, they figure out this way to get all the cars in, and thousands and thousands of people show up and crowd into the lobby of the Century Plaza Hotel.

For the big reveal, he has two in-shape gentlemen with tuxedos get a briefcase handcuffed to their wrist and walk it in through the crowd, bring it onto the stage, opens it up and in there are the 12 sapphires representing all 12 ingredients in Tova perfume. Tova auctions off each sapphire for charity, brings in a few hundred thousand dollars.

The next day the phone rang with unsolicited offers from Macy's, Robinson's May, all the department stores at the time, Barney's, etc. It was the best selling perfume in the world that year and went on for many many years."