Make-up and skin care brands have traditionally sold products with promises of beauty. Danish make-up and skin care brand, Nilens Jord, is challenging its industry, and indeed the world, to “look beyond beauty” and instead focus first on female achievements. A surprising statement for a cosmetic brand, perhaps – but one that echoes the company’s pioneering spirit and its ambition to change the beauty industry from within.
The message takes the form of a new global brand platform, created with its lead agency, Twenty Copenhagen, which will be rolled out across Europe as part of Nilens Jord’s global ambitions that also include product launches on the horizon in the UK and Europe.
The new strategy is led by a 75-second film that follows Sara, a personification of every girl or woman contemplating life’s biggest dreams and achievements, which range from being the first woman to set foot on the moon, to winning four grand slams in tennis or becoming the richest woman in the world.
However, this everywoman is also confronted with a depressing reality that most, if not all, females will recognise, other people’s obsession with what she looks like rather than what she is about to – or already has – accomplished.
The film’s narrative is driven by questions which the different iterations of Sara has to face. When she finally sets foot on the moon, her achievement is overshadowed by a reporter asking, “What is the shade of your lipstick?”, while over in the delivery room, having given birth to triplets, the midwife remarks, “Your skin is so smooth – what’s your secret?”
Incredibly, all these questions are based on insights from field interviews with real women in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany and the UK.
The women in the film are all street cast. The midwife is a genuine working midwife and the teenage tennis player plays tennis and teaches younger kids.
The hero film is supported by an outdoor and print campaign that challenges preconceptions and asks the viewer to look beyond what first meets the eye. In print, after turning a corner or flipping a page, the viewer sees what really lies behind the beautiful face on the billboard – the full person, defined by achievements and persona, rather than looks.
“When we limit girls and women to their looks we limit their potential,” commented Jakob Marum, managing director, Nilens Jord “This is not a campaign, but a holistic new direction for the brand, one that will inform everything from partnerships, to how the brand shows its products, and the women it casts to help tell that story. We were beauty activists when we introduced perfume and paraben-free products, while other players in the beauty industry focused on colors and 80s trends without caring about the consequences for the make-up user, and we continue to be true to that spirit in everything we do.”
Farah Dib, co-founder & creative director, Twenty, adds, “I think most women can recognise themselves in the absurdity of questions thrown our way time and time again – whether we’re asked to smile more, or pre-emptively think about what outfit we wear to increase our chances of being taken seriously in business meetings. It has been incredibly eye opening to speak to women and unearth their uniform experience of objectification and lack of empowerment. It has been equally rewarding to work with a legacy brand like Nilens Jord that is willing to tackle these difficult questions head on. I’m immensely proud of the whole team at Twenty, Nilens Jord and our production partners Holy Ravioli for making this work and the contribution it makes to a debate about female empowerment, possible.”
Credits:
Client: Nilens Jord
CEO: Jakob Marum
Head of Brand: Heidi Sørup
Agency: Twenty
Co-founder & CEO: Thomas Bjerg
Co-founder & Creative Director: Farah Dib
Creative – Art Director: Ioana Lahr
Agency Producer: August Rein
Account Director: Stine Darby
Production Company: Holy Ravioli
Director: Sune Lykke Albinus
Executive Producer: Kristian Ussing
DOP: David Bauer
Still Photographer: Michael Falgreen
Line Producer: Julie Lindhardt
Editor: Tue Eskildsen
Post Producer: Mette Sixhøj
Sound Design: Kevin Koch
Music Composers: Theodor Tang-Peronard, Victor Støve & Emil Kruse
