Beauty

Watch Spike Jonze’s Insane Perfume Ad For Kenzo World

Starring Margaret Qualley, who’s got moves

Someone give the Kenzo marketing team a gold star. They had the bright idea of hiring Spike Jonze to direct the ad for their latest perfume, Kenzo World, and the result is exactly what you might expect. The clip opens with The Leftovers star Margaret Qualley looking bored as hell at some stuffy gala. She excuses herself and heads to the lobby, where the opening clicks of a song start making her body do weird things. At first, it's just facial ticks, but as the music crescendos into an anarchic, fire-starting banger, Qualley's entire body is possessed, leading her on a crazed dance rampage through the halls and staircases of Manhattan's Lincoln Center.

She licks statues, assaults strangers, shoots lasers out of her fingers, and, in a serene turn, floats through a giant eye made of flowers all to the tune of "Mutant Brain," a song made by Jonze's brother, Sam Spiegel, along with Ape Drums. Qualley, who's a classically trained dancer, owes her berzerk moves to Ryan Heffington, whose gonzo choreography helped turn Maddie Ziegler into a star. The clip is something of a companion piece to "Weapon of Choice," Jonze's iconic video for Fatboy Slim that featured Christopher Walken showing off his dance moves in an empty lobby. 

Watch the clip above, in awe.