This story was updated on December 6, 2021
Chanel has responded to uproar regarding the lackluster contents of its $825 advent calendar.
The controversy was sparked by a viral TikTok video revealing several of the items housed in the luxe calendar, shaped like a gigantic bottle of Chanel's famous N°5 perfume.
"It's giving plastic bottle cap," creator Elise Harmon said of day 17, a string bracelet with a wax seal-like pendant embossed with the Chanel logo. Other offerings in the calendar include an abundance of stickers, a keychain, several mini lipsticks, and what appears to be a tiny, Chanel-branded dust bag.
In a follow-up video, Harmon alleged that Chanel's TikTok account blocked her, a claim that the French house characterized as "absolutely inaccurate."
“We have never blocked access to the Chanel TikTok account to anyone, because it is simply not active," Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel's president of fashion, told WWD.
"It has never been activated, no content has ever been published, it has no subscriber and no subscription... When Ms. Harmon visited our page, she naturally found the usual message that she could not access this account, just like anyone else on the network."
Pavlovsky went on to defend the pricey holiday gift, which many felt was overpriced considering its dearth of valuable surprises.
A video from YouTube channel A Heated Mess describes the calendar as "THE MOST FRUSTRATING, OVERPRICED $825 STICKER BOOK."
"I got this so you don't have to," the unboxing video concludes.
"I think it is one of the most beautiful ever made, both in terms of design and the materials used,” Pavlovsky said of the calendar, which was created "to promote [Chanel] products and not to trigger any controversy."
A quick scan of Chanel's Instagram account suggests that customers aren't exactly letting go of advent calendar-gate.
"Still avoiding the calendar issue?" one top comment on the label's most recent post, an announcement of its 2021 Métiers d'art show, reads. Similar sentiments flood the comments section of posts dating back to December 2.
"Our pages are open to everyone, and millions of followers follow us all over the world. They are of course free to express their feelings and opinions," the house specified.
Chanel's website clearly states the contents of the controversial calendar so technically, the joke's on anyone who spent nearly $1,000 on the collectible. Still, it's baffling that the company thought Chanel logo keyboard stickers would appeal to anyone out of middle school.
When life gives TikTokers lemons, they make more than just lemonade — they make content that snowballs into a brand's worst PR nightmare.
