Brad Pitt Endorses Famous Fragrance

Dear Brad Pitt,

You know I love you. You know most women in the world love you, or have loved you at some point, or secretly love you now and just don’t want to admit because they also love Jennifer Aniston and…you know. You’ve been an iconic actor and sex symbol for more than two decades now, and you’re still sexy as a 48-year-old father of six. But still. The new Chanel No.5 endorsement ads? A bit…corny.

Pitt has famously become the first male to endorse one of the most famous fragrances ever, Chanel No. 5, in all of its 91 years. The commercial features just Pitt, standing against a grainy backdrop and looking much like the 30-year-old version of himself we all fell in love with, with his long blonde hair, goatee, and button-down shirt that’s not quite buttoned all the way, revealing some rock hard chest (thank you, wardrobe people, by the way).

The black and white commercial gives us just what we want – Brad Pitt and only Brad Pitt. He stands with his hands in his pockets and seductively talks about how he finds the smells (presumably of Chanel No. 5) of a woman appealing. The implication, of course, is that if you buy and wear the perfume, you just may land a guy like Brad Pitt. Not exactly likely, of course, but that’s how marketing works – it appeals to your fantasies.

It’s no wonder why Pitt was selected as the actor for the job, as the perfume has been linked to some of the biggest female sex symbols on the big screen (ever heard of Marilyn Monroe?), and Pitt’s name is pretty much synonymous with male sexiness.  Chanel seemed to think so, too, as they offered Pitt a reported $7 million to star in the commercial. That is more than most actors make for starring in a full-length movie!

Pitt has certainly taken his spokesperson role seriously and done his research on the perfume, as he recently gave an impressively informed (although obviously heavily biased) description of the fragrance.

“What’s important to remember about Chanel N°5 is how revolutionary this fragrance is. When it was introduced, it broke all the rules by discarding meaningless ornamentation for an honest and open aesthetic, and a scent which embodies liberation from trend, creating a fragrance which remains as modern today as it was during its inception. Chanel N°5 has always been the most iconic women’s fragrance. The beauty of its success for all these years is both elegantly simple and complex at the same time. That’s what I see being the appeal of this campaign; it goes beyond the abstract of emotion or beauty to evoke what is timeless, a woman’s spirit,” Pitt said.

Although only an 8-second clip of Pitt’s commercial is available at this time (the full-length commercial comes out on the 15^th) – and of course, I watched it – I will have to admit it came across as kind of corny. Maybe I’m too cynical to be seduced by Brad Pitt talking to a camera that millions of people are on the other end of, but the whole idea that he is seduced by a woman’s perfume alone seems kind of silly. Most men I know think all perfume stinks, anyway.

But at the end of the day, Pitt has rarely failed to garner big sales in anything he’s been involved in, and I doubt his perfume gig will be any different. Even if the commercial is a bit silly, it’s still fun to stare at Pitt for a few seconds.