"Pink Sky at Night" - an organic perfume ad that was a wistful, summery delight

ft. Bill Nighty for English countryside fragrance brand, fFern.

Jul 06, 2025

Today’s edition of “Quirky, Catchy Stuff I Found Online.”

A series of cool things that catch my eye. Art, copy, design + funny whatnots that I formerly stashed away in my personal “inspiration archive,” but now I share with you.

Good advertising makes you feel something.

Generally, ads often tap into negative emotions such as fear, disdain, scarcity, panic, and sadness. According to buyer behavior theory, these negative emotional triggers tend to influence purchasing decisions more strongly than positive emotions. A study by Baumeister et al. (2001) supports this, showing that negative experiences typically have a greater impact on behavior and decision-making than positive ones—a principle known as the 'negativity bias.'"

But, what about the opposite?

I was served this fFern organic perfume ad that make me feel all warm and glowy inside.

images from fFern

On their website you can click into their cinema and pull back these velvet pink curtains to watch—very alluring and art-forward.

Today, let’s break down this video ad.

This campaign felt so intentional, art-driven, and like a lot of people sat around a little wooden table in England and dreamt this up—which, is a quality of advertising I rarely see.

It also felt analog, grounded, and out in nature. Which, is a dichotomy away from flashy beauty ads that are of the influencer-style, front-camera-facing, “swipe up you guys” genre. It invited me in like a gentle breeze wafting from a kitchen in a cottage.

I watched this right before drifting off to sleep last night. It had me feeling almost a little teary?

I loved this ad for a few reasons:

It left me with a sense of warm, golden, heart-felt feeling. It’s like I wanted to crawl into that ad and camp out there for a weekend. Honestly, it’s how I wish for my summer rom-com novels to come across.
Bill Nighty. (My favorite character from Love Actually). His narration and voice instantly puts you at ease, like a soft and gentle grandfather. (At the end, you learn that the film is lovingly dedicated to the founder’s grandfather).
There were a few lines I really enjoyed—A) “many moons ago” (This rolls off the tongue so well and has a wonderful alliteration. It’s also got way more spunk and folklore than “a while ago”). And, B) “that’s progressive!” (Which, was a strong, unexpected word choice and much fresher than “that’s new!”).
Bill’s delivery of the phrase “Marigold!”
The color correction on the film—I love the warm hue. And, the sunset hues. I have a huge affinity towards sunset gradients and watercolors (ditto A Year of Joy artwork and P.S. You’re A Genius book cover art).
The perfect capture of retro summer nostalgia. And, the sparkle water—there’s something so magical about the way the sun’s rays break into a million little diamonds on the ocean’s surface.
“Pink Sky at Night” which is a beautiful title, but a clever play on the line: “red sky at night, sailor’s delight.”
The flavors—grapefruit, blood orange, marigold. (I love grapefruit—it’s my favorite scent. It’s underused! Lime, lemon, and orange get all the commotion!)
There’s no showcase of the product—it’s all narrative storytelling. There’s no fragrance bottle even, which makes the viewer focus on the ingredients and care that goes into producing it.
The “have a wonderful summer” sign off. I thought it landed so much more deeply than a generic call-to-action like “buy this at fFern.com”—you never really see this done in the age of clicks, traffic, and huge ugly banners. I really liked this. It made this feel much more like watching a homemade film than advertising.