The before and after ad is now called the no make-up selfie campaign. No make-up selfies, a trend begun by celebrities, took off last year. But the ad style is as old as Marilyn Monroe.
Guess what, Monroe stars in Max Factor’s 2015 no make-up selfie campaign, #GlamJan.
The P&G brand turns 80 this year. And Marilyn Monroe would have turned 89. So giving an old ad style a new trend twist using the 50s’ beauty icon is amusingly apt.
And striking…even if Max factor has done it before. The ad below ran in 1999.
The copy reads, “Beauty is as timeless as the legends that create it.” [Clearly: ed]
“Norma Jeane entered his [Max Factor’s] Blonde Room in the late 1940s as a brunette, and thanks to Mr. Max Factor emerged complete with platinum blonde hair, a beauty look fit for Marilyn Monroe,” Max Factor stated.
It still sells some of Marilyn’s favourite make-up shades.
“Marilyn made the sultry red lip, creamy skin and dramatically lined eyes the most famous beauty look of the 1940’s and it’s a look that continues to dominate the beauty and fashion industry,” Max Factor global creative design director, Pat McGrath, commented.
“…Through make-up artistry and the right products, Max Factor helps women today identify their best features so they can undergo their own glamour transformation.”
Max Factor is asking consumers to post two photos of themselves side by side, one without makeup and one fully made up, using the hashtag #GlamJan. The idea is that instead of dressing down and staying makeup-free for January, women can stay looking fabulous.
To get the ball rolling, Leo Burnett’s luxury shop, Atelier, created its own before and after ad, featuring Norma Jeane Mortensen’s transformation into Marilyn Monroe.
A TVC and online component is in the pipeline, starring both Norma Jeane and Marilyn Monroe.
Like the no make-up selfie trend, this campaign will, no doubt, rely on consumer curiosity about what celebrities look like bare-faced for reach and frequency. Gwyneth Paltrow and Coco Rocha have already added their no make-up selfies to #GlamJan.
The brand previously used Gwyneth Paltrow and supermodel Gisele Bundchen in its campaigns.
This November ad, seems now to have been a teaser:
Monroe was ranked sixth in Forbes magazine’s annual list of the highest-earning dead celebrities last year, making an estimated £11 million. The rights to Monroe’s image belong to the Authentic Brands Group, a licensing company that specialises in “adjoining celebrity talent to brands”. It has brokered recent deals that resulted in Monroe-branded spas and nail salons, a café and a line of clothing for teenage girls at the US department store, Macy’s.
