The History of the Jabot Fragrance

Jabot was an orchestra of rose, jasmine, lily of the valley, and sandalwood.  It was bottled in black, French glass juxtaposed with white packaging, featuring Aphrodite slinging her magical arrow through the gold foil lettering.

The original television commercial aired on Global Television in 1991 during telecasts of “The Young & the Restless” soap opera: "Introducing Jabot, Genoa City's most exquisite fragrance; a soft, romantic, floral bouquet for women, from Jabot Cosmetics; now available to you. Call 1-800..."  The commercial is posted on the sidebar however the toll-free-number is no longer available.

The success of our direct marketing campaign opened the doors for us at the Canadian Home Shopping Network.  Jeanne Cooper acted as our spokesperson and her charm and elegance were second to none as we enjoyed a successful decade at CHSN.

During that time, Columbia Pictures Television was bought by Sony and Cynthia Wasney & Lester Borden were succeeded by Patrick Kelly & Andy Kaplan, respectively.

It was then that three American businessmen convinced me to come on board in their negotiations with Sony Pictures Television.  They approached Patrick Kelly with the same proposal that I had spearheaded a decade earlier:

“We believe viewers, who already have an interest & emotional investment in their favourite programs, have a desire to interact more closely with these programs through merchandise acquisition...The Y&R model allows viewers to vicariously experience life in Genoa City by purchasing Jabot cosmetics...The television industry is at the beginning stages of a modified return to the advertiser, studio, and network partnerships of the 1950’s...Such revenue streams have been successfully tapped in children’s and sports programming markets, but have been virtually unexploited in prime time & daytime television.”

Their negotiations never reached fruition but they left a huge paper trail.  In my last conversation with Patrick Kelly, he reminded me of the parameters laid down by his predecessors and informed me that Sony still had those letters on file.