Karangahape Road in a bottle launches via Motion Sickness

Road by Karangahape, a perfume capturing ‘Karangahape Road in a bottle’, has been released globally — with absolutely no online orders allowed.

Sweaty pits on the dance floor. The cloying must of preloved clothing. Hair clippings on a barbershop floor…. not your traditional shopping list for a high-fashion perfume bouquet, but K Rd never cared much for tradition. 

Conceptualised and produced by Motion Sickness and shot by fashion editorial photographer Hōne Naera-Scott, every one of the models double as members of the street’s thriving business community; the barista making your coffee, or the guy serving your fungal cream prescription.

The new scent is a collaboration between celebrated fume-ologist OF BODY and the Karangahape Rd Business Association, to distil the experience of being on Auckland’s most infamous street. For those worried about walking around smelling like a long night on K Rd, Nathan Taare Chief Scentsmith at OF BODY, says the street’s lows (and highs) make it the perfect muse.

“All great perfumes contain ‘bad smells’ and ‘good smells’, and K Rd contains those things in droves. What makes a perfume interesting is contrast, the pairing of potentially off-putting notes with the pleasant ones, and the finding that balance,” said Taare.

“This is a special occasion perfume, an ode to home, and familiar chaos. It’s a surprising, magnetic smell, that will compel deep nostalgia in anyone within the wearer’s radius.”

Motion Sickness’ approach to the work  is an ode to the community and a place they themselves call home. Sam Stuchbury, of Motion Sickness adds: “K Road is a sensory experience, so bottling this within a perfume felt like an interesting idea. The world of high fashion perfume advertising is a bizarre place. Once we discussed hijacking that world and inserting the business icons of K Road, everybody got pretty excited about it.

“It’s a luxury product that is exclusively available on K Road. It’s the proverbial carrot on a stick to get people up here experiencing the street. We can’t wait to see the response, get out there and find a bottle.”

150 bottles of Road will be sold at participating K Road small businesses across the span of six weeks with retailers updated on K Rd’s instagram every morning. A treasure hunt to find the limited edition scent. Road retails at $ 100, with all revenue going directly to housing support charity, Lifewise, which also runs not for profit cafe Merge, on K Rd.

The campaign, visible across Auckland for the next six weeks, was inspired by some of the most iconic perfume advertisements from around the world, with a typical K Rd twist.

Says Freddy Riddiford of Motion Sickness: “The business owners of Karangahape are an elite group of legends. We told them we wanted to make a special fragrance, dress them in Calvins and wander into the land of blue steel, vacant gazes and power poses. They said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

Road’s unquestionably camp campaign hijacks the oftentimes absurd campaigns of major luxury perfume brands. 

Instead of William Dafoe, we see Suresh, the long time owner of Lamb’s pharmacy, flanked by a group of up and coming K Rd artists who rent the space above his shop. Johnny Depp’s solemn gaze is swapped out for Craig Miller, owner of Miller’s coffee (and potential inventor of the flat white).

During the previous two campaigns for KBA the street saw a rise in foot traffic and retail sales. Jamey Holloway, Manager of the Karangahape Road business association, engaged Motion Sickness for a third campaign. Jamey says that the faces of the Road campaign are already famous on K Rd.

“K Rd attracts an eclectic group of hustlers and small businesses you won’t find anywhere else in the world. We want them to be famous beyond this strip of road, and to keep driving people to the coolest street in the whole Pacific,” said Holloway. 

“As far as I’m concerned, perfume is just water, spice, and sex appeal. We’ve done all that and some with a bloody good smelling campaign.”

Each of the 150 bottles is uniquely stamped with a chunk of K Rd on it — a concrete slab carefully stolen from the ongoing Central Rail Link Karanga-a-Hape construction project. 

The campaign runs for the next six weeks across Auckland OOH, press and digital channels.

Perfume: Road, by Of Body (Nathan Taare)

Client: Karangahape Road Business Association

General Manager:  Jamey Holloway

Marketing Manager:  Lisa McMillan

Creative Agency:Motion Sickness

Executive Creative Director: Sam Stuchbury
Creative Lead: Freddy Riddiford

Senior Designer: Hamish Steptoe

Senior Creative: Will Macdonald

Head of Media: Dom Meehan

Photographer: Hōne Naera-Scott (People) 

Photographer: Kayle Lawson (Ingredients & Product)

Stylist: Helen Young Loveridge 

Photography Assist: Logan Buchanan

Lighting: Mark Leedom

Digitech: Gabe Metcalfe

Stylist Assist: Julia Thompson 

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