Chanel No. 5

"SMELL"
In today's last part of the five part series, we talk about the latest marketing idea. So let's see what's brewing here over at The Empiricists for the last time!
In May 2012, Chanel announced that Brad Pitt would be the first male to advertise Chanel No. 5 in the history of the fragrance. Following the announcement, a teaser trailer advertisement was released.  
Brad Pitt, as seen in the trailer, is murmuring words describing the essence of the fragrance, with these words:
"It’s not a journey, every journey ends but we go on, the world turns and we turn with it. Plans disappear and dreams take over. But where ever I go – there you are. My luck, my fate, my fortune. CHANEL N°5. Inevitable."
A second part of the trailer (as broadcasted in Singapore TV) was then released, featuring shots of a female model, being voiced over by Brad Pitt's murmured words of the Chanel fragrance.
Why was this a successful marketing idea, you ask? Well, because this Chanel ad actually "backfired".
When the first teaser trailer was released, many were bewildered and taken aback because Chanel has always been known as the classic women's scent... But Brad Pitt is seen, musing words in black and white about a Chanel perfume. In fact, after all the buzz on online forums, blogs and websites, some people actually switched it up and made parodies of it because they found the Chanel ad... "hilarious".
This is one of the most watched parody, with almost 900,000 views. Instead of ending off the commerical with "Chanel No.5", it instead advertises its own Youtube channel by tweaking its name a little bit.

And a parody we can all definitely relate to........ This parody was done by ClickNetworkTV, a Singaporean Style parody where the host is talking about Singaporean's breakfast. Definitely a must watch!

Well, despite the fact that people out there find the Chanel ad with Brad Pitt in it "odd", "weird", "stupid" or "hilarious", the parodies made out of this ad definitely provided Chanel the buzz that it wanted in the first place! Unknowingly, these parodies and all the talk about this Chanel ad actually increased Chanel's brand and product awareness.

We chanced upon a comment on Youtube and we think this gave a better reason as to why Brad Pitt was chosen as the face of Chanel:

"A man can be the biggest influence on selling a sexy womens perfume. Women will get lured into buying it since brad pitt is demonstrating the words he describes the perfume in. In other words, he is talking orgasm language"

Well said!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, gave Chanel the successful marketing idea..... Without actually planning for it to happen.

Signing off,
THE EMPIRICISTS