Boots? Shouldn’t you be working at Smiths, Will?
A QUICK dash to Boots for a sandwich and some essential toiletries is usually an uneventful affair.
But lunchtime became a lot more interesting for shoppers at one branch of the high street chemist when Hollywood star Will Smith – complete with his own name badge – appeared to join the staff.
The actor and rapper, 49, baffled fans as he turned up at a Nottingham branch in white shirt and tie – an outfit far removed from the cool image he has fostered since he started out as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air in 1980s.
In a video posted on his Instagram account, which has 21million followers, Smith, who has been twice nominated for an Oscar and won four Grammys, is seen wandering around the staff room and welcoming shoppers to the store.
Many assumed he was a lookalike until he began signing bottles of the water he was promoting, which is the brainchild of his son, Jaden, 20, who is also an actor and rapper.
Smith even declared it ‘one of his favourite jobs ever’ as he posed for selfies with confused but thrilled shoppers. He even danced in the aisles with one young fan as an excited mother filmed the surprise meeting.
Boots has begun selling Jaden’s product, Just Water, which is marketed on ecofriendly lines with a recyclable bottle that is paper-based.
Describing how his son came up with the water brand, Smith said: ‘While Jaden was surfing as a young kid, some plastic water bottles floated by him and he soon realised that they were dirtying our oceans and killing the environment. He was motivated to do something to save our planet.’
With the bottle’s cap made from sugercane, it means 82 per cent of the materials used in the packaging are from renewable sources.
But its environmental credentials were not in the minds of star-struck shoppers. One confused fan wrote online: ‘Never in my life did I imagine seeing Will Smith in a Boots uniform.’ Another simply added: ‘What the f*** is Will Smith doing in Boots?’
Jaden said that through his product he was trying to ‘give back’ to the environment and he was ‘excited’ that it was now available in the UK.