This past April, the ad campaign for my girl Jen’s newly-released fragrance, which is named “Jennifer Aniston”, was revealed. The ads showed the actress, wrapped solely in a towel, sitting on a very rocky beach somewhere in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Well, let me tell you, once I saw those photographs, I became extremely hell-bent on finding the exact spot where they had been taken, especially since around that very same time my fiancé and I had just not-so-coincidentally finalized our Cabo San Lucas honeymoon plans. I say “not-so-coincidentally” because the only reason we even looked at honeymooning in Cabo in the first place was because of how often Jen vacations there. My now-husband originally wanted to spend the honeymoon in Hawaii, but I am EXTREMELY afraid to fly and suffer from terrible anxiety days, and sometimes weeks, before venturing on a long flight. I really didn’t want to be nervous or stressed about flying the day of my wedding, so I suggested we travel instead to a place a little closer to home. I started looking at Cabo, mostly because it is Jen’s favorite getaway spot, and when I discovered that it was a short one-hour-and-fifty minute plane ride from LAX I was sold! And then when the Grim Cheaper found out that we could book round-trip airfare to the Mexican city for a scant $150 each, it was pretty much “Cabo, here we come!” So, a few weeks later when fellow stalker Owen sent me Jen’s new perfume ad, I just about fell over. I mean, could it have been any more perfect? Here I was about to head to the very city where the photographs had just been taken! Yay!
I half-jokingly asked Owen if he could track down the rocks for me prior to our trip, and even though I figured it would pretty much be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, about an hour later there was an email from him in my inbox along with a six-page attachment. The email stated, “It’s pretty much impossible to find a couple of rocks without being there in Cabo, but I think I’ve got a good idea where you should look.” Amazingly enough, even though Owen was not familiar with the area, he had figured out that the rock formation which can be seen in the distance behind Jen was the famous Land’s End (pictured above), which is located at the very southern tip of the Baja peninsula. He also figured out that Jen’s head was blocking the three mountainous formations which can be seen at the far left of the above image. Sure enough, when I looked at the above photograph compared with Jen’s advertisement, the two backgrounds matched perfectly. From there, Owen scanned through aerial views of Cabo San Lucas to determine the exact location where Jen was sitting in the photograph. His best guess was that the rocks were located somewhere on the far east end of Medano Beach, between Riu Palace and Missiones Del Cabo. The six-page attachment he had included with his email provided detailed photographs, maps, and aerial views of the Cabo area, and, let me tell you, I printed that thing out and carried it with me EVERYWHERE I went in Mexico so that I could ask anyone and everyone who would talk to me where those rocks were located.
One of the very first people I asked was our airport shuttle driver, whom we met immediately upon landing at Los Cabos International Airport. The driver took one look at Jen’s picture and told us that it had been taken at the beach at Esperanza Resort, which I blogged about on Friday. Turns out our shuttle driver used to be a paparazzi and not only recognized the beach from the many times he had gone there to photograph celebrities, but also informed us that Jen had stayed at the hotel countless times over the years, so it was a place she would have been familiar with. He also pointed out that the structure visible in the background of the right-hand side of the picture (denoted with a blue arrow above) was the Sunset Da Mona Lisa Restaurant – a very popular Cabo San Lucas dining spot. Even though the shuttle driver seemed to really know what he was talking about, I continued showing Jen’s picture to everyone I encountered on the trip to see if they might know for sure where it had been taken. And it was mind-boggling how many different answers I received! One bartender I spoke with even went so far as to hypothesize that the photograph had been taken at Chileno Beach and that the Land’s End rock formation had been digitally added to the background of the picture while it was being edited – which I guess is possible, but not very likely. The answer we heard most often, though, was that the picture had been taken at the Esperanza Resort beach – which is pretty much the exact spot where Owen had originally told me to look. So, one day the Grim Cheaper and I rented a car and headed north to try to find Jen’s rocks.
And, let me tell you, it was quite the stalk! Definitely different than any of the other stalks I’ve experienced in my lifetime. Esperanza’s beach is extremely rocky, and when I say rocky, I mean ROCKY. The GC and I had to traipse over three, four, and five-foot tall boulders while making our way north. It was more of a mountain climb than anything else, actually. Oh, and did I mention that it was about 110 degrees at the time? I can only imagine what the people who saw us during our hike were thinking. Probably something along the lines of “Stupid-*ss gringos!” 😉 The GC and I walked about a kilometer north of the resort, which took us around ninety minutes, and examined every square inch of the beach. Finding Jen’s exact rocks proved to be rather difficult, though, as we had arrived at the Esperanza in the late afternoon during high-tide and I am almost certain that Jen was photographed in the early morning hours when the tide was much, much lower. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that Jen’s photograph had been taken with a wide-angle lens, which distorted the background of the image.
What we finally determined, without being able to find the actual rocks, was that Jen was photographed about five hundred feet north of Esperanza Resort. As you can see in the above photograph as compared with Jen’s advertisement, while it’s not the exact spot where Jen sat, I think we got pretty darn close. I am fairly certain that Jen’s photo was taken on the same rock formation where I am sitting in the above picture, but a bit farther out towards the sea. Because the tide was high while we were there, though, we unfortunately couldn’t venture out any farther into the water.
As you can see above, numerous photographs were taken for the Jennifer Aniston Perfume advertising campaign. My favorite, though, was definitely the one featuring Land’s End in the background. But truth be told, she looks amazing in all of them! Can you even imagine being 41 years old and having a body like that? Who am I kidding – can you even imagine being 21 years old and having a body like that??? Sigh! The photographs were all shot by renowned Italian photographer Mario Sorrenti and I honestly think that they are some of the best photos that Jen has ever taken.
The perfume, which was originally called Lolavie (which some have reported as being a rough French translation for “laughing at life”), took 18 months to create and the actress made herself a part of every minute detail of the development process. Of the creation, Jen said, “It wasn’t just about showing up for a shoot and putting my name on the bottle. I felt like a little chemist. It’s turned out to be an extension of myself as opposed to slapping my name on something.” The perfume is supposed to smell clean and beachy, but unfortunately, because, it is only available at Harrods Department Store in London (and for whatever reason it cannot be shipped outside of the UK), I have yet to be able to catch a sniff of it. 🙁 But thankfully, my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry has a daughter, Jen, who has a friend who lives in London who is going to purchase a bottle for me and bring it with her to the states when she comes to visit next month. And, let me tell you, I cannot wait to get my hands on it! Of the scent, Jen said, “I am not a big perfume-y fragrance fan. I want people to go ‘What is that? You smell great!’” I have never been a perfume-fragrance fan, either, but if I did wear a scent, that is EXACTLY what I would want people to say about it, so I have a feeling I am going to LOVE Jen’s perfume. 🙂
Jen was recently on fave show Chelsea Lately where she spoke about her perfume, of which Chelsea said, “Oh, that smells EXACTLY like I think you would smell!” LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! And being that I would like nothing more than to smell like Jen, I am pretty sure Jennifer Aniston is going to become my signature scent. 😉 You can watch a clip of Jen’s Chelsea Lately appearance by clicking above.
Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: I am fairly certain that the rocks from Jennifer Aniston’s perfume advertisements are located about 500 feet north of the Esperanza Resort, which is located at Carretera Transpeninsular KM 7 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I would recommend parking your car at the Esperanza and using their beach access. From there, walk due north to the rock formation denoted with the pink arrow above. Be forewarned, though, the beach north of the Esperanza is extremely rocky and makes for quite a precarious walk. Be extremely cautious and wear shoes with good tread. I’d also recommend stalking the beach early in the morning, during low tide.
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