finger print for lipstick - as individual as you are
this campaign for clinique, under the direction of ceft and company's creative director, ucef hanjani, for jwt, was presented in 2004. the direction of this campaign was the premise of the shift in cliniques communication efforts in recent years. clinique's initial request, based on our previous work on lancôme, was to help find the 'face' of clinique. historically the clinique brand was associated to pack-shots, beautifully photographed by irving penn. however in an effort to modernize the brand-visuals the house needed something new.
always working from the brands dna up here at ceft and company, this was our observation and the reasons that lead us to these executions:
"for years major cosmetic brands have been painting and pushing an idealized 'face' onto their consumers. from models in the 60's to celebrities in the 90's, and it continues to this day. clinique for its part as a major brand focused on pack-shots. knowingly, or unknowingly, this was not only part of their dna, but a true asset in their dusty attic, if and only if, it could be harnessed properly…
what clinique needed was to keep the great things about this history and loose the negative, this gem had to be polished and brought out to the daylight. the pack-shot's visual history said something. it said that the focus of this brand is in the product not in the smoke and mirrors of glossy celebrities or models. there was a value message beautifully disguised in these irving penn still-life's.
coincidentally the audience had come a long ways from wanting to be someone else, or at least admitting to it or being proud of it. women like sofia coppola, angelica huston, chloe sevigny, were not exactly a mirror of the idealized women and yet very much cool and in demand in the recent times… this was precisely because they were individuals regardless of age and beauty… this led us to propose against a face. the face of clinique was 'as individual' as yours is.
what we did in this campaign, was to take the focus deeper down to the product itself. the cream, the mascara and the lipstick itself. bringing a sense of desire, artistry and individualism without jeopardizing the value story. the tag-line was 'as individual as you are' and the painterly visuals, that could almost stand alone as posters, reinforced that message in a truly clinique way."
