On Tuesday, sports website The Athletic published listed Tennessee Titans second-year quarterback Will Levis as a potential breakthrough candidate for the coming season.
But that was overshadowed by the bigger Will Levis news of the day: a new partnership with mayonnaise brand Hellmann’s to launch a new signature fragrance called Will Levis #8, which features notes of tart lemon, coffee undertones and a mayonnaise accord (described as a “creamy and slightly tart note (that) adds an unexpected twist and reflects Will Levis’ bold personality”).
“It turns out that mayonnaise is not the easiest smell to capture,” said Andrew Simon, Toronto-based global managing director of Hellmann’s agency Edelman, who conceived the brand partnership with Levis and the Titans last year. “Eggs are not the easiest base to create a pleasant fragrance. By the time we got to the third round of samples, we knew exactly what we were looking for.”
Directed by Edelman’s New York office, the launch is accompanied by a long commercial that parodies traditionally moody perfume ads, all with dim lighting, a whispered voiceover – “delicious… eggy… smells… great” – and a shirtless Levis reveling in the aroma of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and stuffing a piece of Hellmann’s thickly spread bread into his mouth.
“I think my exact instruction in that scene was, “Now make the open mayo sandwich at home,” said Simon, who, for the first time since the filming of last year’s Two-minute spot Introducing Levis as the brand’s new spokesperson.
“I direct from time to time, but there has to be a reason for it,” Simon said. “This one was because it was partly my idea and because I had worked with Will before, I knew exactly what I had to bring to the project.”
Simon hired his long-time friend and colleague Steven Meizler, a cameraman who, among other things, The Queen’s Gambit And Godless, for the shoot. “I said, ‘I know you’re going to say you’re working with – insert star here – but he said, ‘I only have a very small window of time and I would love to do this.'”
While modern athletes are very concerned about their image, Simon said Levis has shown a willingness to step out of the crowd. “When I sat down with him, I said, ‘Tell me what you don’t want to do, but other than that, we’re going to have fun,'” he said. “That kind of set the course for what we curated.”
While some on social media were quick to dismiss a mayo scent as a joke, Hellmann’s was quick to clarify that it was a real perfume. “No jokes, this is real and it’s GREAT!” it was said on X. The brand has produced 2,500 bottles of the fragrance, which sells for $8 (Levis’ jersey number). on Shopify.
“We are the first condiment brand to develop a fragrance based on our product – and it makes sense for Hellmann’s to enter this area because people use mayonnaise in many different ways and show their love for it,” said Chris SymmesMarketing Director for Dressings North America at Unilever.”Will LevisSpice icon and mayo connoisseur, was the perfect partner to help us launch this unique perfume and enter the world of fragrance to unite both spice and football fans.”
The fragrance continues an unusual partnership between Levis and Hellmann’s that began when the 33rd pick in the 2023 NFL Draft signed a sponsorship deal that guaranteed him a lifetime supply of mayonnaise after he was Preliminary design video squirted the spice into his coffee.
It was originally intended to be a quick media hit for the brand, Simon said, but when Levis became the Titans’ starting quarterback for nine games last season, the potential for greater exposure became clearer. “It gave the brand team a better look at what Will could bring,” Simon said.
Given the immense popularity of soccer south of the border, it’s not surprising that the fragrance’s launch received widespread coverage across U.S. media, from sports-related publications like The Sporting News to general titles like USA Today. and cooking titles like “Food & Wine” (our favorite tongue-in-cheek headline came from SB Nation: “Will Levis’ Mayonnaise Cologne Shows We’ve Turned Away from the Light of God”).
The partnership has paid off, with Hellmann seeing a 16% increase in sales in key southern markets, according to Simon. “The brand team said, ‘We know we have the right guy and we can do a lot of different things with him.’ It’s a culture play, but I think they’re obviously going to see great momentum,” he said.
This story first appeared on Campaign Canada.
