Nilens Jord - Look Beyond Beauty

Brief
Nilens Jord is a legacy Danish makeup and skin care brand and was first to introduce fully paraben- and perfume-free products in the 80s’. But with many more players on the market today, and after many years of down-prioritising brand building, we could see a rapid decline in brand awareness, consideration and preference among the under 35s. How do you bring an iconic brand with impressive product credentials into the next century? You connect the product ambition with a just as ambitious and meaningful brand platform. 

Insight

87% of girls think women are being judged on their looks*, rather than their achievements.

This is perpetuated by the way women are stereotypically typecast in media and advertising, and not least the beauty industry. Nilens Jord was the first brand in Denmark to introduce a fully paraben- and perfume-free product line up, and now it is the first beauty brand to acknowledge its responsibility and address the lack of true representation of women. 

The beauty industry has come a long way since the 80s, but has it fundamentally changed the way it views, represents and promotes female beauty? Not even the Prime Minister of Finland seems able to escape judgment in the media and press for her appearance while off duty, and 57-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker is branded “brave” just for leaving the house in her natural grey hair.

This is skin-deep empowerment. Seeing more diverse bodies and faces in beauty campaigns today is not enough, we need to acknowledge the woman behind the face. 

*Source: Survey of 1200 girls aged 11-21 by Girlguiding, 2015 and 2020 & Twenty Field Research in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany & the UK, 2022. 

Creative Idea 

Look Beyond Beauty is a brand platform that encourages the audience to think about the absurdity of judging women by their looks instead of their achievements. And the devastating effects this has on female potential. The platform was launched with a film that follows “Sara”. Sara is a representation of every girl, every woman, standing before her life’s biggest dreams and achievements, facing a singular obsession with what she looks like, over what she is about to, or already has, accomplished. 

The questions the different iterations of “Sara” are faced with, are based on quotes from field interviews with women in five markets. All “Saras” have the same recognisable mole on the right side of the face, but as they shatter their very own glass ceilings, the world just continues to reduce them to their looks, in turn limiting their potential to reach their wildest dreams and ambitions.