Shop like a spy

You don’t have a licence to kill, but if your pockets are deep enough it’s possible to live the James Bond lifestyle.

The latest Bond flick Skyfall will see 007 eschew his favourite cocktail, a vodka martini, for a Heineken beer.

You might assume that Bond’s creator, author Ian Lancaster Fleming, is spinning in his grave, but perhaps not. It turns out that Fleming wasn’t averse to product placements himself, peppering them all through his paperbacks, and he got plenty of kickbacks in exchange.

And so following in that fine tradition, the film’s makers struck a rumoured $45 million marketing deal with the Dutch brand to have Daniel Craig slugging back a cold one.

With this in mind, we thought we’d go shopping with Bond, as Fleming originally created him on the page.

Some of the lifestyle products that 007 favoured are now impossible to source. An example is the Pinaud’s Elixir shampoo Bond lathered up with in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Unfortunately the shampoo hasn’t been produced for several years, although somebody is trying to cash in on the rarity, listing a bottle on Ebay for almost $1000.

But most of the products Bond used are still for sale today, making your task as the spy who shopped, a relatively easy one.

Spy scent: You might not look much like 007, but that doesn’t mean you can’t smell like him and attract Bond girls with ridiculously risqué names. In the novel Dr No, Floris Lime Bath Essence gets a mention. Plus, Ian Fleming himself is said to have been a fan of Floris Number 89 Eau De Toilette. Floris has been a London institution since 1730, and the #89 is named after their address in Jermyn Street. Available from Henry Bucks 23-25 O’Connell St, Sydney, and 320 Collins Street, Melbourne. Rrp: $168.

via Shop like a spy.

Strange Random Spy Quote:

“A murderer is less loathsome to us than a spy. The murderer may have acted on a sudden mad impulse; he may be penitent and amend; but a spy is always a spy, night and day, in bed, at table, as he walks abroad; his vileness pervades every moment of his life” ― Honoré de Balzac

 

 

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