Most magnificence campaigns are glowy and shiny, so why has luxurious skincare model NIOD gone in the other way?
Created with Unusual Artistic Studio, ‘The New York Facial’ is a social movie that reframes the on a regular basis city expertise as a form of undesirable magnificence therapy. As an alternative of serums, oils and mild exfoliants, viewers are confronted with the toxins and pollution that metropolis dwellers take up as they transfer by traffic-choked streets and smog-filled air.
The premise is straightforward however unsettling. Impressed by the visible language of TikTok viral skincare routines, the movie replaces calming voiceovers and silky textures with a stark dramatisation of environmental publicity. Heavy metals, exhaust fumes and airborne irritants turn out to be the energetic substances in a facial no one requested for.
It is a gamble, but it surely does what it is speculated to, and that is to cease the dreaded scroll. Slightly than magnificence aspiration, the marketing campaign needs to make us really feel uncomfortable. And it is backed by a troubling statistic: analysis means that air pollution in city areas can enhance pigmentation by over 20%, thus accelerating seen pores and skin injury.
The movie marks the launch of NIOD’s Superoxide Dismutase 3 Enzyme Mist (SDEM3), a method developed to fight environmental stressors. However as an alternative of presenting the product in isolation, the marketing campaign foregrounds the issue first… you’ll be able to’t promote safety until folks perceive what they’re being uncovered to.
“The business playbook to launching a premium skincare product is not to rub toxins on somebody’s face, however that is precisely why we did it,” say Ellie Daghlian and Elisa Czerwenka, inventive administrators at Unusual Artistic Studio. “We wished to carry up a mirror to metropolis dwelling and make the invisible not possible to disregard.”
What offers the marketing campaign its edge is that it isn’t simply surprising for the sake of it – it reframes each day air pollution as an energetic, ongoing assault on the pores and skin.
“Speaking the science behind pores and skin well being is in our DNA, and an innovation like SDEM3 required an equally progressive execution,” says Amy Bi, VP of name at DECIEM, NIOD’s father or mother firm. “We wished to spotlight the real-world downside that our cities are affecting our pores and skin – we love how The New York Facial does that in such a visceral means.”
Past the movie, the marketing campaign rolls out throughout London, New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto, that includes creator-led exercise. Influencers obtain a mock ‘hazardous’ New York Facial equipment—a product they cannot open on account of its listed poisonous substances—and a bottle of SDEM3. The message? The actual risk is not within the field, however within the air.
