Cosmetics brand E.l.f. is using goofy humour to promote its new range of hair care products, with ads featuring Bigfoot and an irresponsible astronaut.
The What The H.e.l.f.? campaign began in June with an ad in which Bigfoot finds a stash of the brand’s products, prompting him to forget his reclusive nature and show off his new hair.
A second spot, broadcast this month, shows an astronaut taking a spacewalk without her helmet because her hair is too stunning to cover up.
While there are other cosmetics brands that also inject levity into their ads, they tend to do so with rom-com-style humour that does not detract from their overall sense of glamour.
In contrast, E.l.f.’s new ads — which were created by Tennessee-headquartered Tombras — are full-on spoofs.
The Bigfoot spot, in particular, takes a big leap by showing the effects of the brand’s products on the hair of a ridiculous beast, rather than a model or celebrity (although the spot does also feature an actress and an influencer in supporting roles).
Not every beauty brand would benefit from embracing such silliness, especially not high-end ones. But E.l.f. has built its reputation on producing affordable alternatives to up-market products, which frees the brand from having to take itself too seriously.
While more expensive rivals are forced to justify their prices with ads that signal prestige, E.l.f. can take advantage of its budget-friendly positioning to experiment with a different tone of voice, which — in theory, at least — should increase the impact of ads by making them more noticeable and memorable, and more likely to be linked in viewers’ brains to the brand.
