What the hell is up with beauty industry marketing?
Advertising has always been thirsty—sex sells but one product campaign has Makeup Revolution really pushing the envelope.
I was browsing Facebook the other night—yes, I know you’ve come off it coz it’s toxic/shit/full of people you despise but oddly, I still quite enjoy it.
As I doom-scrolled, I noticed this advert from Makeup Revolution:
Take a moment to process that ad. Examine how those images make you feel. Ruminate on them and ask yourself this: what the fuck is this bollocks?
You know me, I don’t shy away from difficult conversations. I celebrate all aspects of the human experience. I write freely about sex and all manner of ‘uncouth’ subjects. Very little, if anything of that nature shocks me. I have not been driven to write this out of some moralistic stance. I disagree with censorship and I have no problem with provocative advertising.
But, I have a question for Makeup Revolution: who do you think this will appeal to?
Let’s imagine how the ad briefing went…
Marketing team: “We’ve got a new line of lip gloss to shift. As we know, our demographic is late teens/twenty-something women so how can we make these ads really pop?”
Marketing lead: “I think men would respond to a jizz-on-the-lip approach. We have an ejaculate-coloured gloss, don’t we? Let’s have the girl fellate that one and make sure there’s a dribble of cum—sorry, gloss dripping down the side...”
Marketing team: “Gentlemen, we’re in the presence of genius.”
I cannot fathom how a group of marketing professionals, working for a multimillion-pound beauty brand thought this was the winning pitch. How bad were the other ideas?
Women and girls have zero interest in an ad for lip gloss staged to simulate the money shot. A visit to the comments section proved that point. One woman didn’t understand how it helped her make a buying decision. The only thing evident about the wearability of the gloss was that the consistency was claggy—like semen and I’m not sure that’s a huge selling point. Other commentators were baffled and creeped out by it.
So why are the purchasing desires of women, not always the chief consideration with products designed for women?
Think back to mid-century society. Welcome to the golden age of misogyny. During this period, advertisements repeatedly appealed to men’s sexuality when flogging things to women. It was widely accepted ladies existed for the gratification of men. After all, God made Eve for Adam—from his own rib. Lol.
Men were simply more important. Their needs were paramount. The key benefit of any feminine product is how it improves men’s lives. Buy your wife one of those new-fangled automatic washing machines and she’ll no longer be too tired to lavish attention on you. Lipstick and stockings are about making a woman more fuckable. To be unwed beyond a certain age was to become a social pariah. The ‘fairer’ sex was encouraged to be as desirable as possible because women were reduced to a relationship status.
And another thing: men made the money. Back then, your average woman wasn’t financially independent. She enjoyed the legal autonomy of a child. Before 1975 (in the UK), a woman couldn’t open a bank account without her husband’s permission. So yeah, I get why vintage adverts focused on men’s wants/needs/desires, they were mirroring the attitudes of the day.
But this is 2024.
I’ll admit, it’s hard to shake off these attitudes but why is a beauty brand, with all the performative ‘girl power’ moxie, trying out some retro sexism in their lip gloss ads? Is it that woeful influencer marketing schtick—a cynical move to garner engagement? If so, how does it help sell makeup? Conversions don’t necessarily follow on from loads of social media clicks but understanding your audience does. Without correct context, overt sexual imagery becomes exploitative. And that’s exactly what Makeup Revolution is displaying here.
Real edgy, huh?
