Perfume commercials are typically cheesy affairs: dramatic lighting, longing stares, whispering, breathy narratives, sultry women strutting around and their chiseled male counterparts similarly strutting and posing. Chanel’s latest perfume Web video — I’m sure the agency calls it a “film” — keeps up the tradition.
The spot features hunky Brad Pitt, shot in black and white, delivering a serious, vague, nonsensical monologue that leads up to “Chanel No. 5. Inevitable.” Hmm. And it’s only part one, so there is more to come. I’m surprised that they didn’t use Brad Pitt for something more interesting. Chanel’s other perfume commercials have been more like short films that actually have storylines — yes, dramatic and cheesy ones, but at least they made sense and were shot beautifully and were visually exciting thanks to the use of luxurious Chanel costuming, like the Cinderella-esque one with Nicole Kidman. This one with Brad is just kind of blah.
Update: Part two is now available, and it’s not any better, or much different, from part one. Sigh.
More in Marketing
‘Worried about getting caught out’: Sir Martin Sorrell on why CMOs are not ready to pay for outcome-based agencies
A steady economy is emerging as the quiet counterweight to AI’s much-hyped reinvention of the agency holdco model.
‘More focused on advertising than ever before’: Nearly all of X’s top 100 advertisers returned, ads boss claims
Claim comes as X is embroiled in latest scandal that involves it’s AI chatbot Grok creating sexualized images of women and minors.
CES 2026: Agentic AI hype vs. media buyers’ pragmatism
CES 2026 was all about agentic AI, but Digiday’s Seb Joseph shares why media buyers are approaching the hype around autonomous media buying with pragmatism over urgency.