Since antiquity, the historical reality of Cleopatra has yielded to myth. Liberated from the constraints of reality, and sometimes even realism, this almost fictional character could evolve according to the expectations of each era. While this 2020 American advertisement for Kohler’s toilets does not explicitly name Cleopatra, few would fail to recognize her in this image. This association has been made possible through the arrangement of characteristic signs specific to the current representation of the queen. This advertisement, while playing with these signs, also illuminates them.

The contemporary image of Cleopatra is complex, reflecting the various layers of interpretation that have accumulated over the centuries, and this advertisement provides a compelling example. The most significant layer is that imagined by the 19th century, comprised partly of the influence of the aesthetics of pharaonic Egypt and partly of Orientalism. For the former, although the elements have been adapted, we find the pleated white robe, bracelets, and pectoral necklace, as well as Cleopatra’s black square-coiffed hair. These Pharaonic-inspired costumes are also worn by two of her servants. The palace setting, with its columns, walls adorned with hieroglyphs, statues, and in the background, the pyramids, reinforces this pharaonic ambiance.

The second Orientalist influence is embodied, firstly, by the two final characters: an oriental dancer and a snake charmer, and then by the jewel that Cleopatra wears around her face, inspired by the accessories of Oriental dancers, and finally by the presence of the two panthers. These animals began to appear in the paintings of 19th-century history painters, initially in the form of skins and then vividly for the first time in Alexandre Cabanel’s “Cleopatra trying poisons on condemned men” in 1887. However, it wasn’t until the 20th century that these new companions more frequently complemented Cleopatra’s universe. We note the presence of a new, unusual animal, the scorpion.

These elements underscore the grandeur of the queen, who exudes a haughty air. Her power is so great that she even controls dangerous animals. The snake charmer introduces a snake into the image, a presence generally ominous when accompanying Cleopatra, but here it is charmed. The panthers, resembling large domestic cats, sit calmly, and even the scorpion turns away. This royal and pompous image juxtaposed with the product creates an irreverent and comedic dissonance. Promoting toilets is no easy task. Like a number of other products (such as sanitary napkins or funeral services), they are subject to social taboos. Humorously diverting Cleopatra’s image helps to destigmatize the product. By playing on the polysemy of the word “throne,” the advertisement achieves this, as evidenced by the text: “I feel like a queen on this throne.” Humor also helps to attract the attention of the public and make the brand more likable. Furthermore, Cleopatra becomes the guarantor of the product’s quality by reinforcing the association between comfort and royalty.

Creating an advertisement requires significant budgets, so advertisers must provide ads that are effective and easily understood by the public. History is a risky theme in advertising because it may be poorly understood by consumers. It is therefore necessary to include figures of very high notoriety, of which Cleopatra is a part, as demonstrated by this example.

The reasons why mummies are repeatedly depicted as irresistibly attractive as well as inescapably marriageable – but also potentially monstrous and therefore threatening to their modern suitors – can be explained in different ways. Indeed, the study of the genre of mummy fiction reveals that the depiction of female Egyptian mummies as both beautiful and dangerous creatures derives from a number of overlapping cultural, social and political factors that characterise the end of the nineteenth century, particularly in Britain.

First it has to be noted that the representation of ancient Egypt, in mummy fiction and in other popular media, emphasises first and foremost the otherness of a culture which, from a European point of view, is remote both in space and time. In the nineteenth century, in European imperial cultures, this otherness was constructed within the framework of Orientalism. This phenomenon identified and described by Edward Said in his trailblazing work, Orientalism, published in 1978, can be applied to the description of mummies which are on the one hand attractive and lascivious, like the odalisques represented by Orientalist painters and writers, and on the other hand threatening and destructive as Orientalist thinkers believed the “Orient” might be to Western values. As a dead Oriental female endowed with supernatural powers, the mummy of mummy fiction is completely at odds with the masculine and supposedly rational values of the West. Her otherness, as a consequence, is as compelling as it is fearsome.

Author: Claire Mercier, ISTA Laboratory, University of Franche-Comté, France

Image: screenshot by the author, Kohler, 2022, USA (link here)