The new and unexpected Chanel No.5 commercial was just released on Oct 14, 2012. It had already been a hot buzz when Brad Pitt, the world famous movie actor, signed the contract with Chanel and was paid 7 million dollars for the role. And Chanel spent 10 million dollors to promote this campaign. It is the first time that Chanel uses a male spokesman to promote this classical perfume with 91 years’ history. The female stars who have been the spokesmen of Chanel No. 5 include Monroe, Nicole Kidman, Audrey Tautou and Catherine Deneuve. Those attractive women are all seen as the embodiment of elegance, sexuality and beauty in the campaigns. It would be a surprise that a male can endorse a classic female’s scent. Actually, many audiences doubted the effects that a man speaking a female perfume.
On Oct 9, Chanel first released three teasers of this attention drawing commercials. It only includes three questions: Are you going to somewhere? Do you feel lucky? What is the mystery? Pitt just said a few words, and did not even show his handsome face. And these three questions do not mention the perfume at all. After the release of the teasers, people on social media started to guess how Brad Pitt could convey the idea of Chanel No.5.
Here is what it is:
The commercial is directed by Oscar-nominated director Joe Wright, who is also the director of Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina. I think this commercial might make some of you confused and feel like he is talking nonsense. It is the final version of the commercial. Some audiences are excited about the Pitt’s commercial and see it as a revolution of female perfume. However, it received many negative reviews from the audiences, too. According to the reviews posted online, some audiences think that this commercial has nothing to do with the perfume, and some say it cannot reflect the beauty of Chanel No. 5. And many females said that they would not purchase this perfume because of the commercial. From my point of view, I fell the voice of Brad Pitt is super sexy even though I don’t like what he says. I listened his voice three times when I saw this news at first time. So it can attract customers who like Brad Pitt and his voice.
Surprisingly, regardless of the commercial content, Pitt’s commercial attract many people to make parodies of it, and there is even a rank for top 10 best parodies. It became another buzz among audiences after the Gangnum Style. The interesting parody certainly draw public’s attention. And the awareness and discussion is exactly what the company wants. Here are two parodies that I think is sooooooo funny (Especially the hamster one, I laughed so hard everytime):
As far as I see, this new campaign of Chanel still has some benefits. First, a classic product like Chanel No.5 needs to keep the fresh image among consumers. Brad Pitt’s promotion of female perfume can change its point of views to see the Chanel No. 5. Perfume is especially useful when females want to attract males. It’s exciting to know that how a man consider the smell and feeling of Chanel No. 5. Second, Pitt’s performance actually attract large amount of male customers, as people doing parody online are all males. They might consider buying the Chanel No. 5 as a gift for their significant others. Furthermore, the commercial is only black and white, and Pitt is wearing simple shirt and jeans. It is same as Chanel No. 5’s simple and deep brand image.
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