The Beauty Spot: McCann Paris’ Julien Calot Wants to Break Beauty’s Old Codes
Looking at the beauty category today and comparing it to even a decade ago makes clear that a lot has changed. That change, led by shifting consumer demographics and brands’ evolution, is in a paradoxical flux. More calls than ever are made to ban retouching, do away with the high-glamour aspiration represented by voiceless models, and showcase a diverse cast of people in line with our diverse populations. So how are brands and agencies navigating this shifting and complex landscape? LBB - in association with SHORTFILMS, a production company with a beauty specialism - is launching a brand new series, The Beauty Spot, to investigate this. We will be asking some of the industry’s experts the burning questions surrounding the new rules of beauty marketing and the strategy they’re using to lead - not follow - in this space.
SHORTFILMS’ director Stephen Mead and producer Holly Hartely add, "Teaming up with LBB has given us the opportunity to explore what other industry leaders feel about the portrayal of ‘beauty’ in the changing world we are now working in. It’s a time of flux with conflicting ideals sometimes leading to some messy compromises. It’s time to appraise the successes and failures of the past and develop a new path forward.”
Today we speak to Julien Calot, chief creative officer at McCann Paris, about his views on where the beauty category has been and where it should be going. Julien’s work with beauty giant L'Oréal spans many years and together they’re working on bringing new definitions of worth to the ‘Because You’re Worth It’ mantra. For Julien, the beauty category has certainly gotten things wrong in the past and he believes that it needs to keep distancing itself from images that are unrepresentative and irrelevant to today’s consumer. He also believes that beauty is so much more than what’s on the outside: it’s intelligence, power, energy; something that people can and should define for themselves.
Julien tells us about the spontaneous creation of the now iconic ‘Lessons of Worth’ campaign, how L'Oréal chooses its spokespeople, and why the contradictions of gen z and gen alpha are a source of creative energy for the brand.
LBB> The beauty category has - until very recently - used fantasy and aspiration in order to sell. When did this start to change and what was behind the change, in your opinion?
Julien> I want to start by redefining my mission with L'Oréal. In 1971, Ilon Specht, a copywriter, came out of a male-dominated meeting feeling angry. In her anger, she thought, “I’m fucking worth it.” It’s how the brand eventually got its tagline, ‘Because You’re Worth It.’ That was a moment of transformation in beauty advertising because it was the first time that advertising started to communicate beauty for itself, instead of showing the beauty of others. With L'Oréal, there’s this idea that beauty is for everyone to define for themselves. Basically, it’s not about being beautiful for someone else or beautiful in their eyes. It’s about feeling beautiful in your own desire for confidence, desire for power. So 1971 was a pivotal moment for the brand and it was one of the very first brands to embrace the beginnings of a feminist turn in society. We’ve seen waves of social movement influence the beauty space further from increased calls for gender equality to #MeToo ushering in more change yet and reinforcing the idea that it’s all about beauty for yourself, not for others.
LBB> L'Oréal’s ‘Because You’re Worth It’ mantra has taken on different meanings through the years, with quite a rebellious origin story. You said in a previous interview that the meaning behind it was starting to lose its way - can you please expand on that?
Julien> We’re in a different momentum of culture. There was a time of supermodels, in the ‘90s and ‘00s, and there were a lot of things we didn’t see or understand as we were living them. Even after a short period, we look back and think, “how did we live through that?” When I now look at L'Oréal’s images from that period, I see how much work we have to do. But I look at Barbie, for example, and see how the brand is trying to shift perception with this new feminist approach. What I like about L'Oréal is that we’re not trailing behind feminism but initiating that approach and we have been since 1971. For us, it’s connected to our roots, it’s not about surfing a trend. Talking about the idea of ‘worth’ is more unique than pure beauty but it needs words, it needs storytelling to make it relevant. It has to be beyond the worth of your image and the image you’re projecting. We’re going back to the soul of the people. That’s where the big shift is happening - people are realising that beauty is not an external factor, it’s driven by what’s going on inside.
I find what’s currently happening in the beauty industry fascinating. Beauty is now, of course, more diverse, and we’re all also working to break the old codes of the industry. We’re showing that you can be sublime and beautiful at any age. I also love that beauty is moving towards intelligence; people become beautiful through energy and intelligence because it resonates more than looks.
LBB> The ‘Lessons of Worth’ campaign stripped back the glamour and artifice of some of the most well known and idealised faces. Why was it important to go back to basics with that particular campaign?
Julien> What I loved about the campaign was the one take format. Interestingly, we didn’t at first choose the format of how the campaign looks, the black background. The first instalment that we shot was with Viola Davis and we came up with the idea on the sidelines of a different shoot. Her agent was not really willing to take on this project. We spoke to her and she thought it was a great idea and agreed to do it there and then. It was shot in 15 minutes on the side of another production and in one take. I was behind the camera watching at the time and asked if we could do another take, for security, and Viola said, “No, Julien, you have it.” It happened really naturally and we decided to embrace it going forward. We now focus on the simple form which feels very pure. The focus is on the voice and what the person has to say; there’s nothing artificial about it. This style of ad also connects with some of L'Oréal’s history - I found ads from the ‘70s with a woman simply speaking to camera and rejecting stereotypes.
Every time we write a new ‘Lesson of Worth’, we do it together with the spokesperson. This ensures that we’re authentically representing their voice and expressing their notions of strength and power and self-love. There are a lot of different energies in those lessons.
L'Oréal does believe that people can beautify themselves, create a vision of their own beauty. That’s why we don’t want to only showcase people who are ‘naturally’ beautiful. Natural is great but it’s not the only version of beauty. We want to represent and address ideas of beauty across the spectrum.
LBB> In recent cultural memory L'Oréal has been associated with the biggest A-list celebrities who are known for their beauty. The category is always going to be led by and associated with images - can the industry ever get to a point where the beauty image isn’t in some ways normative and/or idealising?
Julien> We are trying to change this idea through our work. Since I’ve been with L'Oréal, we have worked with a lot of spokespeople. That was the very start of our mission when we started working together with the brand. We considered about 30 different spokespeople and signed Viola Davis and Celine Dion. We also continue to work with long-standing ambassadors like Jane Fonda and Andie McDowell. What we wanted to show the world is that L'Oréal is invested in showcasing and representing all kinds of people beyond your classic model types. We’re trying to transform beauty with power. For example, we signed Kendall Jenner which people might not think fits into that vision but she’s a very powerful and charismatic figure of the modern entrepreneur. She’s clever, she’s talented, she’s very involved in her business. She was born and raised with a real work ethic, instilled by her mother, and she brings that energy to L'Oréal. So on top of being beautiful, she has that power too. But L'Oréal isn’t limited to Kendall; we have different spokespeople to capture and represent different beauties, different sources of power, different energy.
LBB> Gen z and gen alpha have a very different attitude towards beauty and its representation in media to other generations. Do you think that that is the case and the perception of beauty is really shifting?
Julien> To me, these generations are very paradoxical. This generation is always critiquing old beauty norms but then using filters at the same time. They talk a lot about sustainability but then take a lot of holidays. The new generations are full of contradictions. But that’s fun and cool because when you juxtapose two opposing forces you create energy. Tension and friction is interesting creatively. We have to be in the middle of that.
We all love to use the right products, we love the care they bring, we love the playfulness of make up. On top of all that, we can create an idea of beauty that makes people feel powerful and great about themselves. I don’t think that’s contradictory with accepting yourself as you are, it’s not a rejection of wanting to beautify yourself. Those two notions can fit together perfectly. Beauty is not a new idea, it underpins the history of humanity across all cultures. Since the time of cavepeople, we have had beauty rituals. We don’t want to do away with those rituals. We all start our day with some kind of beauty ritual, even if it’s super short, and that’s here to stay.
LBB> How are you helping L'Oréal to navigate this ever-shifting landscape? And how is this evolving idea of beauty affecting the craft and production side of advertising?
Julien> The projection of overly perfect images meant that people couldn’t recognise themselves. That was a big mistake on the part of advertisers and we have to work to undo that now. I’m a big believer that we should represent everyone. We have to approach this representation with respect. And we try to do that the best that we can with L'Oréal without it feeling like a box-ticking exercise. At the same time, I want to tick every box because if we don’t then we might leave someone out and that won’t be representative of society. Again, it’s paradoxical. We never want to become a caricature of representation but we sometimes have to be a bit caricatural to embrace everyone as they are.
On the craft side, we no longer retouch our images but we do work a lot with light. That’s enough. Most of the campaigns now are completely unretouched and created using beautiful lighting and great photographers.
LBB> Besides L'Oréal, which other brands do you think are succeeding/leading in this space?
Julien> The big trend for me is new communication models. I think what CeraVe is doing in the US market is amazing and different. It’s playing with a completely new strategy by focusing everything on influencers and far away from traditional advertising. First, it’s going to conquer the heart of the audience through influencers and programmatic campaigns, then return to traditional advertising. I respect what they do creatively a lot, CeraVe always has a presence at festivals, for example. I’m always watching what they’re doing next. I’m also interested in the small newcomer brands to see what they’re doing. I work for a giant and it’s easy to critique a giant but we’ve never followed trends. That’s why I opened this conversation with that moment in 1971. This year, you’ll see us launch some work that embraces the very DNA of the brand and rejects the idea of trends.
LBB> What do you think the future holds for beauty advertising? Are there any changes you would like to personally see?
Julien> I think beauty brands need to revisit their core and brand vision. To ask, what are we bringing to society? Brands need a mission and purpose. How this mission and purpose is articulated is very important. I feel like step by step we’re going more towards cool content and pieces of content not driven by the 30 second TVC. It’s more like a 5-minute long cool piece of entertainment. I can’t wait until Netflix launches ads so we can create longer formats and tell more stories. What drives effective communication is how interesting you are. When brands push things on people it doesn’t work but if you’re interesting you naturally capture an audience. For me, the future is linked with this intelligent approach - you have to be interested and interesting; you will only be listened to if you have a great story to tell.
Then there’s developments in tech media and super short formats, using technology to create very creative new ways of approaching content. I feel we are working in two directions. The first one is really storytelling-focused and getting back to the purity, the essence of ideation which is what I really enjoy the most in my job. And the second approach is about embracing technology in order to create automation for micro tasks and to produce super fast content for snappy use but in an interesting way. I love the fact that in two seconds, you can get to your audience with something surprising and interesting.
