L’OREAL: Telescopic Mascara
ADVERTISING DESIGN | SPRING 2023
CREATIVE BRIEF
Redesign a failed or controversial advertising campaign.
Research the sample media and analyze what went wrong. Redesign the material into 3 poster ads for print.
CONCEPT & STRATEGY
The Telescopic Lift Mascara levels up your lash game with increased stats.
The video game comparison relates to the original Gen Z audience L’oreal was targeting through TikTok influencer marketing with a stronger concept and an emphasis on no false advertising needed.
Research
The Original Ad
On Jan 24th 2023, tiktok influencer Mikayla Nogueira, who currently has over 14 million followers, promoted the newest mascara launch from L’oreal known as the Telescopic Lift Mascara. In the video, she is seen to be applying two coats of the mascara and then reappears at the end with false eyelashes applied. The video has over 55 million views and over 75K comments.
The comments section of the video is filled with viewers and consumers calling out Mikayla on the false advertising. Subsequently, many other influencers responded to the “mascaragate” scandal by reviewing the mascara on themselves.
Research
About L’oreal
L’oreal is the world’s largest and most prominent beauty and skincare brand established in 1909. It is a parent company to many other beauty brands such as Garnier, Essie, and Lancome. They sell everything from foundations to haircare to face washes. New launches in the beauty industry are released daily and with them are numerous marketing campaigns. L’oreal’s marketing and ad campaigns have historically targeted young women using messaging about self worth, inclusivity, and confidence. In 2021, L’oreal spent 10.59 billion euros on advertising and promotions.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing Industry is set to grow to approximately $21.1 Billion in 2023
TikTok (utilized by 56% of brands using influencer marketing) is now the most popular influencer marketing channel, jumping ahead of Instagram (51%) for the first time, and well ahead of Facebook (42%) and YouTube (38%).
It is now the norm to pay influencers (42%), rather than just give them a free product (30%)
Source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/
The Aftermath
There’s a saying that all publicity is good publicity and inadvertently L’oreal received much more hype around this product than anticipated. Ardell Beauty, a popular false eyelash company, responded to the scandal to promote their own product with their own version of a popular meme.
Discovery
I started this project analyzing the color palette, copywriting, and general aesthetic of the previous ad campaigns surrounding the L’oreal Mascara. I also spent some time researching beauty ad campaigns and created some initial sketches on paper. My main idea for this campaign was to showcase the actual product and not have false advertising. Through the feedback I received from the professor, I narrowed down the sketches to digitize and focused on a video game “level up” theme. This not only related to the 18-24 Gen Z age range but inline with the digital scape of social media.
Concept & Design Development
Everything within this campaign was intentionally linked to the video game theme through the high contrast color palette of black and tonal pink or through the bento box user interface layout. Heavy emphasis was put on real product imagery showing the effect of the product “leveling” up your lashes.
“Choose your level” plays off memorable traditional fighting games closely associated with the target generation and uses a faux desktop screen. The animated gif is also inspired by vintage loading screens and the health bar from traditional 8 bit games. The typography is consistent through each iteration.
Final Deliverables
The video game user interface is as a strong concept to appeal to the Gen Z target audience with a memorable execution. Photography uses the real product without any alterations or additions. The simplistic graphic art style utilizing 8 bit inspired typography and a faux desktop screen is eye catching. The “achievement unlocked” pop-up window ties back into the level up central concept while showcasing credibility in the product.
Course
COMD 2300
Advertising Design
Term
Spring 2023
Creative Director
Adrika Hoque
Professor
Hoda Ramy