SMELLS LIKE SUCCESS: Johnny Depp's Dior perfume ad gets PRIME TIME slot following trial victory
Johnny Depp seems to have developed a Midas touch following his trial victory against Amber Heard. Several major brands and labels dropped the actor following abuse allegations leveled by his ex-wife, but now it appears the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star has reclaimed his clout as a resurrected Dior campaign featuring him is airing in prime time this week.
Depp has displayed his rockstar prowess in an ad spot for Christian Dior's Sauvage men's perfume. TMZ reported how the commercial aired during 'MasterChef' on FOX Wednesday night in the 8-9 pm slot ET. While the 'Donnie Brasco' star signed with the company back in 2015, the scent appears to have enjoyed an organic comeback owing to the buzz surrounding his trial. Sephora also started pushing the fragrance with an Instagram ad that made the rounds in late May.
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Last week, fans of the actor showed their support by purchasing Dior's Sauvage in droves, making it the number one best-selling men's fragrance at both Ulta and Sephora in that period. In the wake of Depp's widely-publicized defamation trial, his followers put their weight behind him by purchasing the $155 cologne. It also emerged that the search for the fragrance surged during the court proceedings. According to Hey Discount's results, Google searches for the scent surged by 48 percent from 8,23,000 in March 2022 to 1.2 million in April 2022. Wall Street Journal editor Jacob Gallagher noted how the product had also become the fourth top-selling men’s Eau de Parfum on Amazon.com and that the TikTok hashtag #diorsauvage had been viewed more than 350 million times.
It's worth noting that Depp remained the face of Dior's Sauvage despite being dropped by other major labels following allegations of domestic abuse and his libel loss against The Sun in 2020. A spokesperson for Depp praised the brand for not cutting ties with the actor through it all. “He knows that Dior, in particular, has been steadfast and unwavering in its support and he will always be grateful to them and to all those who have supported him through the sales on his behalf," the spox told Gallagher.
As mentioned, Depp and Dior first joined hands in 2015 for the launch of their then-new brand Sauvage, which was the brand's first new cologne in a decade. The acclaimed actor was chosen as the fragrance's muse owing to his "singularly authentic allure, tattooed arms, and rock-jewelry-covered hands," the brand wrote in Dior Mag. The ad depicts the Wild West and shows Depp with his guitar in scenes from a desert. “The enthralling brand film sees the new brand ambassador, Hollywood hero Johnny Depp, embrace a dramatic and mysterious look as he escapes the city to bury his jewelry in the desert," London-based agency LEAP, which produced the ad, said at the time of its release. “The creative perfectly achieves the balance of raw wildness with masculine sophistication that the fragrance emulates.”
Last week, a Virginia-based jury ruled in a unanimous decision that Heard, 36, defamed Depp, 58, when she called herself a victim of domestic abuse in a 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post. Heard was ordered to pay $15 million in damages, including $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, before Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages to $350,000 as per Virginia state law. The jury also awarded Heard compensatory damages of $2 million as she was defamed when Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman called her abuse allegations a hoax.