Armani Beauty lets Jonathan Bailey talk failure in Power of WILL
Devon Rodriguez interviews Jonathan Bailey, J Balvin and other public figures for Armani Beauty's Power of WILL fragrance series.
For Armani beauty, a recognizable face becomes more interesting when the person behind it admits to uncertainty. Audiences see the movie premiere, the race-day helmet and the polished campaign portrait. They do not usually see the mistakes, fears and private decisions that preceded those public moments.
That gap is the premise of The Power of WILL, a new video interview series hosted by artist and digital storyteller Devon Rodriguez. Actor Jonathan Bailey, musician J Balvin, Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz and entrepreneur Simon Squibb discuss the choices that shaped their paths. The interviews are part of Armani beauty's storytelling around its I WILL fragrance.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- When polished stars talk about doubt
- Why Devon Rodriguez fits the story
- How Armani is changing the fragrance conversation
- What beauty marketers can learn from the interviews
When polished stars talk about doubt
Jonathan Bailey is accustomed to being watched as a performer. In this series, the camera turns toward the work that viewers do not see. Reflecting on a filming process that can require repeated rehearsals for a few seconds of finished footage, the actor says: "[People] don't see the mistakes. They don't see the real failures."
That small admission does something a conventional celebrity portrait cannot. Instead of asking audiences only to recognize Bailey, it gives them a moment to recognize a familiar feeling: that public confidence can coexist with private hesitation.
Bailey is also Armani beauty's global fragrance ambassador, so his appearance has a clear commercial role. Yet the conversation format leaves room for the person to be more than a face attached to a bottle. A recognizable guest gets the viewer in the door; the account of uncertainty gives the viewer a reason to stay.
Why Devon Rodriguez fits the story
The choice of host matters almost as much as the guest list. Rodriguez built an audience by drawing portraits of strangers on New York City subway trains. His work makes a simple exchange feel personal: someone sits for a drawing, and the image opens up a conversation about who they are.
Armani takes that recognizable creator format into a more controlled world of celebrity interviews. Rodriguez is not presented merely as a famous social-media face reading questions. His portraiture gives the series a visual and conversational premise that connects the appearance of a person with the experiences behind it.
The cast stretches across different kinds of achievement. J Balvin approaches the theme from music, Sainz from motorsport and Squibb from entrepreneurship, while Bailey brings a performer's perspective. The brand has not disclosed audience or sales results for the series, so the significance lies in the creative choice rather than any demonstrated impact.
Armani says the series concludes on October 25 with an episode turning the focus on Rodriguez himself. That closing idea is consistent with the format: even the interviewer, whose work is about looking closely at other people, becomes a subject.
How Armani is changing the fragrance conversation
Fragrance has a particular storytelling problem online. Viewers cannot smell what is being sold, so campaigns need another way to communicate an identity, mood or memory worth associating with the scent.
Armani's approach ties the name I WILL to determination through people describing actual choices and setbacks. Instead of relying only on glamour, the series asks guests to talk about the effort behind their polished public images. It is a coherent way to make a product name feel like a personal statement without pretending that the videos prove anything about purchases.
There are other approaches in the same category. Chanel has used Jung Kook and a conversation about fragrance craft to give 1957 L'Extrait a personal dimension, while Rare Beauty built its Rare Beginnings fragrance story around mythology and a painterly film. Armani has also connected Kendall Jenner's Power of You fragrance campaign to a high-profile Venice appearance.
Those examples are not evidence that interview-led fragrance marketing is universally more effective. They show the different cultural material brands can work with: fandom, cinematic storytelling, the red carpet or, in this case, candid conversation. The useful distinction is whether the creative format has a believable reason to involve its chosen personalities.
What beauty marketers can learn from the interviews
The interview series makes a familiar beauty-marketing question more human: what can a well-known person contribute beyond being recognizable? Armani's answer is to let the celebrities and creator talk about the experiences that shaped their public identities.
- Give talent something specific to do. The guests are not only posing with a fragrance. Their assignment is to discuss defining choices, which creates material audiences can understand even without knowing the product.
- Choose creators for their method, not just their following. Rodriguez's reputation comes from turning portraits into encounters. That behavior makes him a more natural fit for a series about looking past appearances than a generic celebrity host would be.
- Let different communities enter through different people. A film actor, a musician, a racing driver and an entrepreneur bring different cultural reference points. Whether that translates into broader attention is a separate question that would require campaign data.
- Do not confuse narrative depth with proven effectiveness. The series offers more space for personal stories, but Armani has not published performance results in its announcement. Brands can study the creative logic without assigning unverified commercial outcomes.
The broader lesson is not that fragrance advertising must become an interview show. It is that public figures can carry richer ideas when their part in the campaign reflects something audiences already know about their work or what they want to understand about them.
In a crowded stream of celebrity imagery, a pause to discuss a mistake can be more distinctive than another flawless photograph. Armani is testing that storytelling space through a creator whose work has long been about finding the person behind the picture.
The result is a fragrance campaign that makes determination a conversation rather than a slogan. Whether that conversation changes what people buy remains unproven, but it gives marketers a concrete example of how talent and format can reinforce each other.
