I distinctly remember curling myself up in front of the TV one sunday evening, say fifteen years ago and becoming virtually catatonic at the hysterical beauty of Estella Warren, all wrapped up in red silk like Red Riding Hood for Chanel No.5. To the mystifying melody by Danny Elfman (a score first appropriated by another fairytale of sorts, Edward Scissorhands), Estella scurried along an aluminium drawbridge, set down her pail and selected a bottle from a wall of No.5 before gesturing at a fluffy baby wolf to stay put. 

Within that moment, I understood everything there was to know about Chanel No.5; it's mystery, its elegance, its enormity, its legend and its standing among other fragrances. That's the power of film – or, in this case, the power of television, a television advert – there to hawk perfumes, sure, but also to unfurl the all important narrative, mood and personality of a scent. Fragrance ads are how we can – pretty accurately – predict whether we will fall in love with a particular scent or sprint in the other direction.

Some, of course, are memorable for the wrong reasons, but it doesn't matter. The rose guaze of hindsight delivers them with added charm now, and a ticket back to our forgotten pasts, when we sat, curled up watching them for the first time.

Click the gallery for my edit of the fragrance ads of yesteryear that you will have forgotten you loved.

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