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New York-based Kenneth Cole announced that Joe Jonas is its global brand ambassador for Inspire, a new men’s fragrance priced from $35 and now on sale at Nordstrom Rack and select Nordstrom stores. It is the brand’s first new men’s fragrance in three years. Jonas helped shape the campaign, which sends up fragrance advertising and includes an original song he performs.
The film runs about a minute and a half and was directed by Anthony Mandler, a music video and film director. It is set in New York. Jonas co-wrote and performs a power ballad whose playful lyrics promise the many benefits of wearing Inspire. In the song, he casts himself as the best-smelling man in town. He is backed by a choir made up entirely of himself, and at one point he reveals a lower-back tattoo that reads the fragrance’s name. Jonas told WWD he wanted viewers to wonder at first whether the ad was real before the joke lands. The brand, he said, let him “make it feel like me.”
Kenneth Cole, the brand’s founder and chief creative officer, said that the idea of doing a parody was Jonas’s. In the announcement, Cole said Inspire “breaks a few of the category’s rules” and called Jonas a creative partner in bringing the scent to market.
Jonas, a member of the Jonas Brothers, has his own history with cologne. He spoke to Cosmopolitan on a break from the Burning Up All Over Again tour. Inspire perfume is strong, which he likes, and it feels like something he can “douse myself in before a show,” he said. The brothers’ tent outside the main stage doubles as a fragrance factory, and he estimated that Nick sprays himself seven to eight times. For anyone buying cologne for a partner, he suggested picking something you would like to smell all the time, spraying it on them in a store and letting it sit, since a scent smells different on everybody.
Christine Hassan, a perfumer at Givaudan, created Inspire as a woody aromatic. Bergamot, lemon, and grapefruit make up the top notes. Rosemary, cypress and black pepper form the middle, and the base is cedarwood, oakmoss and amber. The carton has embossed silver detailing, and an outer sleeve carries images from Jonas’s campaign, according to the press release.
The Eau de Toilette costs $35 for 30 ml and $75 for 100 ml. The collection also includes a 10 ml travel spray at $18 and a 170 g all-over body spray at $15.
The collection is sold at every Nordstrom Rack store, select Nordstrom stores, Nordstrom.com and NordstromRack.com. Nordstrom Rack is the retailer’s off-price banner. The brand plans to add select international retailers after launch and to widen distribution in the U.S. and abroad but has not said where or when.
About a week before the announcement, Jonas began teasing the launch under the banner “This Was All Joe’s Idea.” According to the brand, the teasers included a countdown website and a billboard stunt on the New Jersey Turnpike. Next is a Times Square takeover and launch event, followed by an in-store appearance where Jonas will meet fans, with branded pedicabs across the city.
Kenneth Cole is a top-five player in men’s masstige fragrance. ‘Masstige’ refers to brands priced between mass-market and prestige, and Inspire is the brand’s newest scent pillar. Kenneth Cole’s line accounts for roughly 10 per cent of Parlux’s total sales. One of the 100 largest beauty companies, Parlux posted 2024 sales of more than $300 million.
Parlux president Lori Singer said that the brand’s customer base is broad and that Inspire is meant to keep that customer while trying to “bring in a younger consumer to the brand.”
Kenneth Cole Productions sells footwear, clothing, and accessories in 24 countries under labels including Kenneth Cole New York and Reaction Kenneth Cole. Earlier this year, the brand featured KJ Dillard, a television personality, model, musician and former professional skateboarder, in an instalment of its Purposeful Voices campaign. Parlux sells in more than 80 countries and territories. Its portfolio also includes Billie Eilish’s fragrances, Paris Hilton Fragrances, Jessica Simpson, Vince Camuto, Sam Edelman, Steve Madden, The Shop Men’s Grooming Line, and Drake’s Better World Fragrance House.
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