charm offensive

noun

: a calculated campaign to use one's personal charm to gain favor or support

One of Hollywood's most intensely magnetic and seductive stars, Cruise unleashed a full-scale charm offensive in wooing Holmes …

—Michelle Tauber et al., People, 16 July 2012

The pizza magnate … is staging a full-on charm offensive, hoping his Southern-fried charisma, business savvy, top performance in the first GOP debate, and media prowess are enough to offset his fundamental flaw: zero political experience.

—Christian Science Monitor, 21 May 2011

With apparently little regard for traditional republicanism, Sarkozy has also launched a charm offensive aimed at various ethnic groups.

—Stéphanie Giry, Foreign Affairs, September 2006

Word History

First Known Use

1956, in the meaning defined above

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