The challenge of selling prestige cosmetics to teenagers is not unlike the challenge of selling opera tickets to people who grew up on TikTok: the product may be excellent, but the packaging needs work.
Estée Lauder, the beauty company that has been a fixture of department store counters since Estée Lauder herself began selling creams in New York salons in the 1940s, is making another attempt to reach consumers young enough to be her great-great-grandchildren. The effort enlists Bowen Yang, the "Saturday Night Live" cast member, and Ana Gasteyer, an alumna of the same program, in what the company is calling a campaign to "enter the group chat."
(Whether the group chat wants to be entered is, as always, a separate question.)
The campaign was created by Mother New York, the agency that has been handling creative duties for the brand. Details about the specific content of the advertisements were not immediately available, though the involvement of two performers known for comedic work suggests a tonal departure from the gauzy, aspirational imagery that has long characterized prestige beauty advertising.
The effort comes as legacy beauty brands find themselves competing not only with one another but with a proliferation of newer labels that were built, from the start, for an audience that discovered makeup through YouTube tutorials and Instagram filters rather than through magazine advertisements or mother-daughter trips to the Clinique counter.
Estée Lauder Companies, the publicly traded parent of the namesake brand as well as M.A.C., Clinique, and La Mer, has been navigating a difficult period, with sales in China — long a growth engine — proving less reliable than they once were.
Mr. Yang and Ms. Gasteyer, for their part, have now officially entered the prestige beauty industrial complex, which is at least more glamorous than hosting a corporate retreat.
Original story published in adweek.com: "Bowen Yang and Ana Gasteyer Help Estée Lauder Enter the Group Chat"