Monday, September 27, 2010

Beauty Ad Fail of the Day: Sephora Super by Perricone

So this popped in my email inbox yesterday. Sephora was announcing the arrival of Super by Perricone line, and this was the promo picture:

(Picture courtesy of olivedgreen on MUA)


I don't know about you, but something about that model looks really, really, wrong. The "I'm-in-ecstatic-pleasure" eyes-closed-mouth-wide-open pose. And the white cream running down her face - of course it's just Dr Perricone's Hyper Hydrator Coconut Water MCT, what else could it possibly be? And some of that Coconut Water is running into her mouth too. You know, because coconut is really yummy, in addition to being good for your skin.

I honestly don't know what the Sephora marketing team was thinking when they decided to put this ad up - I mean, did they think it was cutting-edge or sexy or something? I don't know about you, but the ad honestly grossed me out. Call me a prude, but I think it's in pretty bad taste, even if it did make me snigger like a 12 year old boy. And I half-suspect this might be deliberate - you can't possibly run an ad like that not realizing what it looks like! I mean, it's not even particularly subtle. Eew, yuck. And is that supposed to make me want to run out and get a tub of moisturizer and slather it over my face? Umm, I think not. Unfortunately for Sephora, I'd remember the ad, but not the moisturizer.

For those reasons, this is what I'd call a BEAUTY AD FAIL. What do you think? Fail or Not?

18 comments:

  1. major fail!
    distasteful even lol. eeew.

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  2. I got that email too, yuck, yuck, yuck is all I can say.

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  3. Yeah, that's in extremely bad taste. I am most certainly not a "prude" or reserved, but I really dislike this. Looking at their target audience, why would this be an appealing ad? It just seems derogatory.

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  4. this isn't exactly selling glamour to me...

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  5. oh, i'm sure they knew what they were doing when they released this ad. sadly, this is the state of advertising today. sex sells, plain and simple. and as people continue to do this, the masses become desensitized; therefore, they must push the envelope even further in order to preserve the shock value.

    you're right, it's absolutely distasteful. but i'm ashamed to say i didn't even bat an eyelash.

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  6. She really REALLY loves that moisturizer hahahahahahahhah

    I don't find it distasteful, just funny

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  7. I thought it was hilarious! I sent it to my husband, who sent it to his friends. Needless to say, guys will probably buy it for their girls.

    Definitely, "Exciting"

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  8. Got the e-mail. Looked at it once and hit delete. I'm not a prude either. I have even watched racy things, but this rates up there with Niptuck and that whole sperm facial stuff with the salon/spa ordeal the one season. Literally that was what popped in my head...Niptuck!!

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  9. Fail indeed. It looks horrible.

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  10. Excitingly! I will take time and will come back! Greetings, Antje

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  11. She's really enjoying her facial, haha. You'd think the target audience was men.

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  12. its because, as we all know
    - sex sells,
    pay more attention to some more advertisements around you, theres a lot of hidden sexualization going on..

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  13. I got this email too and to be honest I didn't really look at but now that you point it out it is pretty foul.

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  14. GET OVER IT! It's just milk! Anyone who thinks about it and thinks it's dirty has a dirty mind!

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  15. @Anonymous: Have you seen the Dr Perricone Super Facebook page yet? Some of the older posts (from end of 2010) were talking about their products in very suggestive ways, referring to things like "the big O" (Omega 3, of course), the "OMG glow" (same thing) and a "quickie" (that's a consultation). And the "milk" picture is prominently displayed too. The use of such suggestive language and the photo makes me think that the brand definitely intended for the innuendo to be there, even if you don't see it. I do think the innuendo was deliberate, and is there because the company wanted it there. Whether you're offended by it, of course, is another thing, and I'm sorry you didn't like my personal opinion.

    The facebook page is here. I suspect the latest posts stopped using the innuendo because they discovered it probably wasn't very effective as a marketing tool: http://www.facebook.com/getsuper

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