Which actor became the first male face of Chanel No. 5 in 2012?

Brad Pitt became the first male face of Chanel No. 5 in 2012.

Chanel announced the actor’s appointment in May 2012, marking a deliberate break with the fragrance’s overwhelmingly female advertising tradition. Pitt’s campaign was unusual because it showed him speaking directly to the camera about the scent’s emotional and symbolic meaning rather than appearing in a conventional narrative with a female model.

The black-and-white campaign was directed by Joe Wright, who had previously worked with Chanel ambassador Keira Knightley. Pitt’s celebrity status and deliberately serious delivery made the advertisement widely discussed, including because it presented a man as the central voice of a perfume historically marketed through glamorous female icons.

He followed a long line of Chanel No. 5 ambassadors that included Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet, Nicole Kidman and Audrey Tautou. Later campaigns returned to female ambassadors and mixed-gender casts, including Marion Cotillard in 2020 and Margot Robbie with Jacob Elordi in 2024. “First male face” refers to the fragrance’s advertising history, not to the first man ever associated with Chanel products.