P&G takes sting out of Giorgio

Giorgio Beverly Hills, the US perfume that some hotels and restaurants have banned for being too powerful, is being toned down.

Its owner, Procter & Gamble, confirmed this week that it is bowing to public opinion and reformulating the overpowering scent. A lighter version is being developed and will go on sale from February 1996, backed by an advertising campaign through Grey Advertising. New packaging will be designed for what will become known as Giorgio Beverly Hills Revitalisation.

The original Giorgio scent will continue to be sold worldwide. However, the redesign is an admission it has gone out of fashion as a result of a trend towards lighter smelling perfumes in the Nineties.

Giorgio is not the only perfume to go back to the drawing board. Christian Dior did a similar revamp of its overpowering Poison brand in April 1994 with the launch of the lighter sister perfume Tendre Poison.

“We had a spray around of the new scent and it was much nicer,” says a Giorgio Beverly Hills spokeswoman. She admits: “It was possibly a bit heavy before. Some people found it a little overwhelming.”