[1]A new trend among many fashion and beauty brands, it seems, is to
use young, pretty up-and-coming actresses [2] in their ad campaigns
rather than established movie stars. Some examples from the past
couple of seasons include Felicity Jones [3] at Dolce & Gabbana, Mila
Kunis [4] (who may be inching her way to movie stardom) at Dior,
Emily Blunt at Yves Saint Laurent, Emma Stone at Revlon, Emma Watson
at Burberry, Elle Fanning at Marc by Marc Jacobs [5] and Hailee
Steinfeld at Miu Miu.
While many critics have pointed the finger [6] at Marc by Marc and Miu
Miu for using girls who are too young to wear or afford the clothes
they advertise, there's another potential issue, which is that those
brands' target customers have no idea who these ladies are.
Last week, Vanessa Friedman wrote on her Material World blog [7] for
the Financial Times that there has been a devolution in the
celebrities brands are choosing to front their campaigns–that
we've gone from movie stars like Sharon Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow and
Elizabeth Taylor to an era of stars chosen solely based on
"attractiveness" and "a momentary flurry of paparazzi
attention" such as Jones, Blunt and Kunis. She compares them to
models in terms of interest level and writes, "I don't relate to
them and I'm not all that interested in them. They don't have the
track record of the brands they represent."
She definitely isn't wrong. For example, when British newcomer
Felicity Jones, who is undeniably gorgeous, was announced as the new
face of Dolce, some people were surprised that the decades-old label
chose someone so unknown. In fact, I barely knew who she was other
than that she had been on our best dressed list a couple of times. But
then I looked her up, watched the trailer from her new movie, saw her
on the Rachel Ray show one morning and thought she was so cool and had
such amazing style and was clearly the next big thing and omg I love
her. Granted she is barely recognizable in the makeup ad (below), but
I was impressed that Dolce had the foresight to realize that she could
possibly help portray the brand in a new light.
[8]
In the case of Mila Kunis at Dior, it does feel like an odd choice but
not necessarily because she's uninteresting or not old enough, but
perhaps because she's not as much of a "serious" actress as
other ladies who've been chosen to represent the brand such as
Marion Cotillard and Charlize Theron. Even Natalie Portman, who's
only 30, felt like a better fit. It feels like Dior is trying to make
Kunis into something she's not. At the same time, her mass appeal is
undeniable–Kunis sold more magazines than any other cover star this
year [9].
I would also argue that for most of these actresses, the "flurry of
paparazzi attention" is not "momentary" and that most of them
are merely in the early stages of what could be long, successful
careers.
To be fair, I'm not really a customer of any of the aforementioned
brands. Most of their products are pretty far out of my price range
and I don't have a lot of red carpet events to go to–nor do a lot
of the people my age who think Elle Fanning and Felicity Jones are
awesome.
Maybe a significant portion of the people who could afford–and have
reasons to wear–these labels are too old or don't pay enough
attention to red carpets and fashion blogs to know or care who these
actresses are. And maybe a campaign star that feels familiar or
relatable to a customer is more of a motivator than someone they've
never heard of. If so, these ads may be alienating to those people. Of
course, a fashion company could have myriad reasons why they chose a
particular lady as their face for a season. Maybe they want to be more
relevant. Maybe Dior feels they have the more mature market locked
down and is trying to go after a younger, more rough-around-the-edges
type of girl. Maybe Marc Jacobs is just obsessed with Elle Fanning
because she's amazing and didn't care what anyone else thought.
What do you think? Should big fashion brands continue hiring young,
hot starlets or go back to the Gwyneth Paltrows and Nicole Kidmans we
know and (may nor may not) love?
See the original post here:
Are Today's Lesser-Known Campaign Stars Alienating Brands' Target
Customers?
Links:
------
[1] http://fashionista.com/2012/01/are-todays-lesser-known-campaign-stars-alienating-brands-target-customers/dior01-2/
[2] http://fashionista.com/2011/11/the-new-wave-of-style-starlets/
[3] http://fashionista.com/2011/11/the-new-wave-of-style-starlets/
[4] http://fashionista.com/2012/01/mila-kunis-is-the-new-face-of-dior/
[5] http://fashionista.com/2011/07/elle-fanning-stars-in-marc-by-marc-jacobs-fall-2011-campaign/
[6] http://fashionista.com/2011/07/hailee-steinfeld-on-why-shes-not-too-young-to-be-the-face-of-miu-miu/
[7] http://blogs.ft.com/material-world/2012/01/05/mila-kunis-sells-handbags-to-grown-ups-%E2%80%94-and-other-luxury-fables/#axzz1j5lIapEe
[8] http://fashionista.com/2012/01/are-todays-lesser-known-campaign-stars-alienating-brands-target-customers/felicity-jones-dolce-gabbana1/
[9] http://fashionista.com/2011/12/best-and-worst-selling-glossy-cover-stars-revealed-is-this-the-beginning-of-a-kardashian-backlash/
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