Definition of charm offensive
: 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
