Monday, September 27, 2010

Beauty Ad Fail of the Day: Sephora Super by Perricone

So this popped in my email inbox yesterday. Sephora was announcing the arrival of Super by Perricone line, and this was the promo picture:

(Picture courtesy of olivedgreen on MUA)


I don't know about you, but something about that model looks really, really, wrong. The "I'm-in-ecstatic-pleasure" eyes-closed-mouth-wide-open pose. And the white cream running down her face - of course it's just Dr Perricone's Hyper Hydrator Coconut Water MCT, what else could it possibly be? And some of that Coconut Water is running into her mouth too. You know, because coconut is really yummy, in addition to being good for your skin.

I honestly don't know what the Sephora marketing team was thinking when they decided to put this ad up - I mean, did they think it was cutting-edge or sexy or something? I don't know about you, but the ad honestly grossed me out. Call me a prude, but I think it's in pretty bad taste, even if it did make me snigger like a 12 year old boy. And I half-suspect this might be deliberate - you can't possibly run an ad like that not realizing what it looks like! I mean, it's not even particularly subtle. Eew, yuck. And is that supposed to make me want to run out and get a tub of moisturizer and slather it over my face? Umm, I think not. Unfortunately for Sephora, I'd remember the ad, but not the moisturizer.

For those reasons, this is what I'd call a BEAUTY AD FAIL. What do you think? Fail or Not?