May 18, 2001

                    European Advertising

                    'Charlie' Mounts a Comeback, Aiming for a Younger Crowd

                    By ALESSANDRA GALLONI
                    Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

                    LONDON -- Call it retro chic or kitsch appeal, but Charlie
                    smells a comeback.

                    The perfume brand with the man's name and sassy script
                    logo revolutionized the fragrance market when it was
                    launched by U.S. cosmetics giant Revlon in 1973. Promoted
                    by models in pantsuits, Charlie came to symbolize a
                    generation of liberated women. But with a torrent of
                    competition in the '80s and a backlash against strong scents
                    in the '90s, Charlie lost ground.

                    In the U.K., however, Revlon is about to revive the aging
                    brand with a new version of the perfume under the Charlie
                    name. The launch -- set for July and followed by an ad
                    campaign in September -- underscores that the market for
                    Charlie in the U.K. is still very much alive, Revlon executives
                    say.
                   
                    Revlon is trying to market its
                    "Charlie" fragrance to a
                    younger crowd.

                    It's no longer the scent of a
                    woman. "Charlie here is mainly for
                    teenagers. It's very different here
                    than it is in the U.S. where it's
                    seen as more glitzy," says
                    Charlotte Gravel, brand manager for
                    Charlie at Revlon U.K. "Different
                    markets have different needs, and
                    the U.K. market can sustain a new
                    variant," she adds.

                    Like its smash hit debut nearly
                    three decades ago, the success of
                    the new Charlie perfume will hinge
                    largely on promotion. The ads are
                    being created by Wieden &
                    Kennedy, a Portland, Oregon,
                    agency whose roster includes Nike
                    and Diet Coke in the U.K. market.
                    The ads will focus on the
                    11-to-18-year-old market -- a much different audience than
                    the one that became enamored with Charlie in the early '70s.

                    That ad campaign was revolutionary in the fragrance industry.
                    Charlie was the first perfume with a man's name. For the first
                    time, the ads portrayed women gleefully striding in trousers
                    -- rather than in an evening dress and clinging to a man's
                    arm, the way most perfumes were promoted previously. With
                    its breezy scent, it was a perfume that women wore to work,
                    when they didn't necessarily want to smell sexy. Moreover,
                    "Charlie was marketed as a perfume that women bought for
                    themselves even if they didn't have a husband or boyfriend,"
                    says Allan Mottus of Mottus & Associates, an industry
                    consulting firm in New York. "People understood the theme --
                    it was very American, very brash and it became an
                    international smash."

                    Wieden & Kennedy has only begun working on the campaign
                    and the new ads aren't yet available, but Revlon says it
                    wants to stick to the themes of independence and lifestyle
                    that made Charlie popular in the first place, even though it is
                    now targeting a younger audience. Charlie still sells some of
                    its versions -- Blue, Gold and the original bottle -- to
                    thirty-something consumer in the U.K., but the best-selling
                    versions of the perfume are Red, Silver and Urban Energy,
                    which are mainly for teenagers. The new Charlie perfume that
                    is being launched this summer hasn't been named yet.

                    Ms. Gravel says it makes sense for Revlon to dedicate
                    renewed attention to Charlie in the U.K., because it is the
                    No. 1 eau de toilette in Britain in the mass-market category.
                    Charlie is more popular than other brand lines from
                    competitors such as Yardley, Coty, Wild Musk and even
                    sports apparel maker Adidas. All these brands, including
                    Charlie, are sold in retail giant Boots and other drugstores
                    across the country. In the mass-market body-spray category,
                    Charlie is second to the Impulse brand, Ms. Gravel says.
                    "Charlie is something that teens are spending their pocket
                    money on."

                    Revlon says it has no plans to roll out the new fragrance in
                    the U.S. That's partly because the mass perfume market in
                    the U.S. declined in the late '90s as "greener" alternatives
                    from the likes of Gap and Intimate Brands Inc.'s Bath and
                    Body Works came on the market. Indeed, Revlon in the U.S.
                    pretty much quit the perfume business in the late '90s,
                    abandoning new fragrance launches and scaling back
                    promotions.

                    "The mass market is dried up in the U.S.," says Mr. Mottus.
                    "There is basically no mass fragrance business so it doesn't
                    make sense to spend on it."