Episode 95 - L'Oréal Transformation Ad Reviewed By McCann WorldGroup, BP and Johnson&Johnson
This week’s Advertisers Watching Ads reviews an ad for L’Oréal Professional Services that ran on the International Day of Transgender Visibility, created by Sajo // McCann and chosen by Contagious.
The clip is so much more than an ad, telling the story of how important hair is for transgender people and looking at how beauty salons can be part of this transformation. There’s also a rich backstory, where L’Oréal are partnering with the True Self Foundation in Puerto Rico and offering a scholarship for cosmetology studies, too. Is this enough or just a brilliant start to something bigger to come from the brand?
Our guests Ritu Lakhanpal (Managing Partner at McCann Worldgroup), Mark Rose (Head of Brand & Paid Media at BP) and Adam Cowlishaw (Head of Marketing and Connected Commerce at Johnson & Johnson) rated this ad a 3 out of 5. What do you think of it? Watch the full episode and let us know!
Automated Transcript
Episode 95 - L'Oréal Transformation Ad Reviewed By McCann WorldGroup, BP and Johnson&Johnson
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads and discuss what's good and bad about them.
We are brought to you this week by our partners, Contagious, who give us cool adverts to review every week. So thanks, guys, for your ongoing support. But before we get to this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Ritu Lakhanpal 0:30
Hello. My name is Ritu. I'm a Managing Partner at media brand slash McCann Worldgroup.
Mark Rose 0:35
Hi, I'm Mark. I look after the brand and advertising at bp.
Adam Cowlishaw 0:39
Hi, I'm Adam. I'm Head of Marketing for vision care at J&J in Singapore.
Tom Ollerton 0:44
What a panel. Thanks so much for joining us. This ad ran in Puerto Rico for the International Day of Transgender Visibility. And it tells the story of an initiative by L'Oreal for trans people, helping them get the great hair they want. Working with ten salons and the True Self Foundation, L'Oreal also donated $15,000 to a scholarship fund to train cosmetologists. As part of a push to get beauty salon staff to better understand the needs of the community. All resulting in trans people feeling better in their own skin. This is the first network of dedicated transgender salons, and it doesn't stop here. L'Oreal are looking to provide additional resources for trans people, information and foundations, and specialized clinics, and more. All under the idea of strengthening self-esteem and self-determination that the brand's "Because You're Worth It," slogan is known for. Let's see this week's ad.
So what I'd like you all to do is to give this execution a vote out of five. One, two, three... A three, a three, and a three. Averaging nicely at three. Right... Ritu, what do you think of that when you first saw it?
Ritu Lakhanpal 4:21
I really liked it. It's not what you'd say is a traditional ad, you know, it doesn't have the production quality that you expect from L'Oreal ad. It's more selfless when it comes to branding elements. It's taking really important initiative and message around representation for transgender and gender nonbinary individuals. Making that connection between people's relationship with hair and beauty. And of course, with your hairdresser and then connecting that back to mental health, confidence, body image for this community that aren't represented on a mass level within the beauty industry. I just thought that the production quality could have been better.
Adam Cowlishaw 5:06
I mean, I mean, it's great, isn't it? You know, I think any brand that's willing to kind of create a piece of communication around this and put the spotlight on a really important issue, deserves to be listened to. There's a lot around this that isn't in the video. If you do a little bit of reading on the ad, they've actually partnered with the foundation in Puerto Rico where they can finance a scholarship to somebody to study cosmetology. There's a bit of substance to it. You know, the fact that there's a network of ten salons. It's not just a, "Hey, we support this." It's actually, "We're doing something about it." So I think that, I think that's, that's quite important. And I think they do a good job there.
Tom Ollerton 5:46
Are L'Oreal doing enough here? They're definitely doing something. But is this really going to change the lives of trans people? And do you think they've gone far enough or is this plenty for a brand like L'Oreal?
Mark Rose 5:57
Well, I think you have to give them credit for doing something and maybe this is just the start. I love the fact that they're doing this, making a difference to people's lives, real people's lives, you know, and you hear from them in the video. I like the fact they put it into a video to raise awareness of this and bring it to more people. I think that's great. I think the video is pretty good.
Ritu Lakhanpal 6:17
Are ten salons and a video enough? I think, I guess is the question and what's next? Obviously, everyone's echoing the same point, right? Is this enough? It's a start. I suppose it's a 'let's see what's next' for L'Oreal in terms of better representation in those big budget ads that we've seen. The big move would be to do something bigger budget, bigger investment behind you know, broadcast and so on.
Mark Rose 6:42
I mean, I hope that they look at this and they get... You know, it's successful and it gets well-received and they want to grow it. I think the way of encouraging them to do that would be to salute, to praise them and show that this is a good thing.
Ritu Lakhanpal 6:53
I think no one should be taking away the fact that they're doing this and spending a lot of time and investment in this initiative.
Adam Cowlishaw 7:00
I think if they had gone straight in with like a big IMC and it was everywhere, they would probably been accused of tokenism to a certain extent. Because I think a lot of brands have kind of moved into that space but not really backed it up with anything tangible. You know, kind of what's, what's meaningful behind that.
Mark Rose 7:19
I didn't take it as a, as an ad. I took it more as a, as a sort of a video case study of something they're doing on the ground. In a sense, that makes it an ad because it's coming from L'Oreal but it's not, it's not a typical ad. I think there's some execution things about the video that could be improved. But I took it as you know, it's quite a simple case study of some brilliant work they do on the ground. It's not a glossy, fancy video ad.
Tom Ollerton 7:42
Did any of you actually have an emotional response to this or was it a kind of cerebral marketing analysis?
Adam Cowlishaw 7:49
Yes, because this is an issue that's probably not too far away from kind of what I concern myself with anyway. So I identify as part of the LGBT community. I think the subject matter is such that it's not trying to sell you something towards the end. So if the intention is to kind of, you know, arrest your kind of attention, I guess... And kind of make you do something or sit up and do something, then I feel like I didn't quite get that but I was kind of drawn in.
Tom Ollerton 8:19
Adam, Mark, Ritu, thank you so much for your time.
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