The Return of Old-School Celebrity Campaigns

Rachel Bilson doesn’t mince words in her ad for Lancôme’s Juicy Tubes lip gloss.

“Nothing transports me back to the early 2000s quite like Juicy Tubes,” she said in the spot, which looks like it’s filmed on her iPhone and was released in May. “It instantly reminds me of when I won the Teen Choice Award for ‘Best Chemistry.’ Why did I win? Well, because kisses are better with Juicy Tubes.”

She’s just one of several famous faces from the aughts enlisted by the beauty brand to deliver straightforward testimonials, including one from Ed Westwick as his “Gossip Girl” character Chuck Bass.

Ads featuring celebrities enjoying a product, or speaking directly to the camera about its benefits, are among the oldest forms of mass marketing. While they never fully went away, for many years brands have tried to top each other with stunt casting and elaborate premises.

The right high-concept ad can go viral – E.l.f. Cosmetics owned the 2023 Super Bowl with its commercial featuring Jennifer Coolidge showcasing the stickiness of the Power Grip Primer. But just as often, consumers are confused by what these sort of ads are actually selling, or simply roll their eyes at another celebrity doing something crazy to sell makeup or clothes.

Lancôme and other brands still see value in hiring a famous face. But increasingly, they’re making the product the star of the spot. The direct approach can even build trust with consumers by not trying to pretend marketing is something it’s not.

“It is an ad. Let’s just get [that] out of the way,” said Isabelle Carramaschi, senior vice president of marketing for Lancôme.

The strategy seems to have paid off: the Westwick ad is the brand’s most engaged video of all time.

But for the direct approach to work, the viewer has to buy that Beyoncé really would wear Levi’s to the laundromat, or that Nicole Richie is a Fashionphile power user.

Slapping a celebrity face on a cookie-cutter advertisement “runs the risk of trying to sell someone something, rather than help the user identify with them … it can be gimmicky,” said George Raptis, co-founder and chief executive of agency marketplace Breef. To get the execution right, brands should consider what content resonates with consumers today: As influencer review, tutorial or styling videos have become the standard, brands are deploying a similar testimonial-style approach with celebrities.

“You’ve got to make sure the customer believes it,” said Raptis.

From Creator Reviews to Celebrity Testimonials

Secondhand luxury platform Fashionphile enlisted Emma Roberts to star in its first-ever celebrity campaign last year with a goal of boosting awareness in order to better compete with rivals like The RealReal.

Since then, Fashionphile has increased its marketing budget by over 20 percent and rolled out another celebrity campaign starring Richie in May. In the ad, Richie speaks directly to the camera, telling viewers she is “all about ‘The Simple Life,’” to describe the ease of buying and selling pieces on the platform — a playful nod to the reality series that spurred her rise to fame.

It’s a message anyone could have delivered, but having Richie say it boosted awareness, said Sophia Tsao, the platform’s chief marketing officer. Organic search, for example, reached new highs last month in conjunction with the Richie campaign.

In a May campaign, Gap Inc.-owned Old Navy worked with actress Lindsay Lohan, whose heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s coincided with Old Navy’s peak popularity. With Lohan in the midst of a career resurgence — “Freakier Friday,” the sequel to the 2003 hit “Freaky Friday,” arrives in theatres this August — partnering with her allows Old Navy to communicate that it, too, is as relevant now as it was then.

The ad itself, however, doesn’t try anything too clever: it features Lohan, alongside other stars, working out in the brand’s gear and spouting taglines like “Old Navy, new moves.”

Even with a pared-down approach, it’s important brands consider whether a celebrity is a natural fit. Take Levi’s, which inked a partnership with Beyoncé only after she organically mentioned the brand on her “Cowboy Carter” album — her song “Levii’s Jeans” plays in the background of her ads.

Doug Shabelman, chief executive of marketing agency Burns Entertainment, typically advises clients to ink deals with celebrities that are set to last for two to three years, in order to ensure their commitment and get a sense of what works well with the talent. Still, over the course of that time, a brand should try to find ways to keep its marketing with that celebrity feeling fresh and ever-changing.

That can mean going both high concept and low concept with the same star.

Adidas worked with basketball player Anthony Edwards in 2023 to produce an old-school ad for the sneaker line he co-created with the brand, extoiling their virtures. “These the ones,” he says. “The colour, the feel, the look.” Then this spring, Adidas dropped a new campaign, featuring Edwards and Ice-T in a “Law & Order” parody.

Without variety, “it does start to lose its glam, and it starts to lose the messaging,” said Shabelman.

What’s Old Is New Again

It’s no coincidence that brands are dusting off an earlier generation’s marketing style at the same time that they’re hiring Gen-X and Millennial stars.

In an unpredictable world, “people are gravitating towards what feels the same and familiar,” Alison Bringé, chief marketing officer of Launchmetrics, said in an email.

Early 2000s stars not only provide that comfort to shoppers, but they also resonate with a wide range of audiences. To boot, old-school stars are often more affordable to work with, said Shabelman — a key point for a campaign type that typically requires a hefty marketing budget.

Lohan gave Old Navy’s campaign “a familiarity and trust that comes with someone people have grown up with,” said Zac Posen, the brand’s chief creative officer and executive vice president, creative director of Gap Inc., in a statement. The campaign broke Old Navy records across follower growth and social engagement, according to the brand.

Plus, celebrities directly addressing the camera in a self-aware manner, resonates more deeply today than it might have in a pre-TikTok world. The key is tying a product to a feeling to make a celebrity-fronted ad feel believable, rather than just a sales pitch.

“Stick to someone that’s going to make the consumer have a good feeling right away,” said Shabelman.