The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2025
Reformation casts Pete Davidson as its 'Official Boyfriend' to launch menswear
For its menswear debut Reformation hired famously-dated Pete Davidson as 'Official Boyfriend', selling the relationship comedy instead of the clothes.
Reformation
What it had to solve
Reformation, the women-led fashion brand, was introducing menswear for the first time. Instead of a traditional product launch, the campaign film 'The Perfect Boyfriend' had to open the category with humor and land with Reformation's core female audience while still sparking broader cultural conversation.
How it works
Reformation built its name with women, so its first menswear range faced a delicate ask: open a new category without alienating the audience that made the brand. A standard product launch would have shown clothes; the campaign chose to show a relationship instead.
The film 'The Perfect Boyfriend' cast Pete Davidson as the ideal, attentive partner and crowned him 'Official Boyfriend of Reformation'. Playing on his popular charm and his very public dating history, the launch leaned into the 'patient boyfriend on the shopping couch' trope that female shoppers know well.
The tongue-in-cheek treatment made the menswear debut feel fresh and engaging rather than like an expansion pitch. It resonated with Reformation's core female audience, sparked broader mainstream conversation, and the campaign is archived in D&AD's awards archive.
Why it lands
- The joke belonged to the audience: the 'boyfriend on the shopping couch' trope is a female-shopper experience, so the campaign spoke to Reformation's core customer in her own language.
- Pete Davidson's dating history made 'Official Boyfriend' a self-aware gag that mainstream culture already understood, giving the launch free cultural context.
- Making the film about relationship dynamics instead of garments let women enjoy the ad even if they were not shopping for menswear, widening reach beyond the product.
- A tongue-in-cheek launch created sharable moments, so the debut generated conversation instead of feeling like a corporate category extension.
What it did
The stunt framing turned a first-menswear launch into culture chatter: the 'relationship' became the story, the debut resonated with Reformation's core female audience, and the campaign is archived in D&AD's awards archive.
What you can take
To launch something a core audience might overlook, put it in the hands of a persona that audience already has feelings about: let the character's story carry the product news.
Since then
The campaign's framing — a celebrity boyfriend as brand title rather than a model showing clothes — made the menswear debut itself the punchline, and the work was catalogued in D&AD's awards archive. It stands as an example of using a persona's public story to open a new product category with humor instead of persuasion.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card