Description
On first glance, it looks like a classic L’Oréal mascara ad, red backdrop, sleek wand, bold typography. But then the headline hits you: “THIS IS AN AD FOR MEN.”
It’s a deliberate curveball. L’Oréal uses the familiar visual language of beauty to talk about something bigger: women in leadership. The mascara strokes become a bar graph showing that female leaders score higher in mentoring and employee satisfaction. It’s bold, surprising, and disarming in the smartest way.
How It Works:
The brilliance lies in the subversion. The viewer expects one thing, a cosmetic pitch, and gets a reality check instead. That tension makes people stop and pay attention.
Then the ad backs its message with data, turning a beauty product into a metaphor for performance, clarity, and competence. It reframes leadership through a feminine lens while speaking directly to men, the group most likely to influence hiring decisions.
How You Can Reuse It:
Take a visual your audience thinks they already understand and flip the meaning. Use that familiarity as a trapdoor into a deeper message. Let your product, or an object associated with your brand, double as a chart, metaphor, or symbol for something unexpected but socially relevant.
When you connect surprise with purpose, people don’t just look at your ad, they remember it.
