They spent years stirring up controversy with songs like “God Save The Queen” and “Anarchy In The UK”. Many experts give them credit for igniting the punk rock movement in the UK in the late 70s, and inspiring the careers of bands like Green Day, Offspring, Nirvana, and Oasis.
Now you can rub the stench of the Sex Pistols on your body with new Sex Pistols perfume.
This smells a lot like the misguided launch of Harley-Davidson perfume a few years ago. The Sex Pistols and Harley-Davidson are both brands that should smell bad, or at the very best unrefined. How can they possibly represent a positive-smelling fragrance?
Coors made the same blunder with their bottled water launch in 1990. Bottled water was becoming a booming business, and Coors thought they were famous for the sparkling Rocky Mountain water used in their brewing process. They neglected to consider that they were more famous for beer. People didn’t buy Coors water because, in their mind, Coors products get you drunk. Water doesn’t do that.
The Sex Pistols perfume has zero chance of success beyond becoming a novelty purchase or a gag gift.
Extending a brand like the Sex Pistols into other products isn’t impossible or unheard of, but those products need to have some congruency to the brand itself in order to have relevance.
A Sex Pistols beer that tastes like total anarchy and makes you want to piss on society? Bring it on.
Unless this perfume reeks with the stench of the rotting corpses of the ruling class, it won’t ring true with Sex Pistols fans.
