Brad Pitt for Chanel No. 5

Celebrity has always been the answer to great advertising, whether it is good or not, simply because putting the face of a star on a brand makes the product that much more desirable. Chanel’s decision to use Brad Pitt for their new Chanel No. 5 campaign is nothing short of creative genius. Its innovation is simply proved by using a man for one of the most prominent female fragrances in the world.

The ads themselves are not good and Brad has received a lot of backlash for them. They consist of nonsensical ravings about the journeys of life and love and Brad ends up looking awkward reciting a monologue it is clear he doesn’t quite understand. But it manages to somehow work. Brad Pitt – with that husky badboy voice, etched in black and white – will sell the fragrance simply because it is Brad Pitt with his husky badboy voice filmed in black and white.

The ads are shot by Oscar-nominated director Joe Wright but it fails to live up to the standards that Chanel has managed to keep alive for all these years. But search for Brad Pitt on YouTube and the first search result will be the Chanel No. 5 ads – so people are talking and watching and it is “inevitable” – as Brad inexplicably ends the ad by saying – that the fragrance will sell.