Tresses with a story to tell

Stress causes hair loss. And, COVID-19 causes stress. Put two and two together, and you have a number of people searching about hair loss during the pandemic, suggests Google Trends. These days, a comb rarely touches the hair, except for the time when an important video call is scheduled with the boss. To reignite women’s love for their hair, Philips India has launched a new campaign #StyleThatSpeaksForYou to emphasize the care it needs.

“We understand that women use their hair as an extension of their personality to express their myriad moods and expressions. Through this campaign, we aim to bring out that relationship,” says Gulbahar Taurani, vice president- personal health, Philips Indian Subcontinent.

The 60-second black and white ad with a soft background score shows a series of women playing with their hair, flicking it, letting it loose or trying to tame it. While there is no dialogue, a voiceover reminds viewers that none is needed because the tresses are doing the talking.

“Philips wanted to revive the hair styling category at a time when women were not feeling the need to care about their hair,” says Ritu Sharda, chief creative officer, Ogilvy North. With that brief, the ad agency was handed the task to build a narrative. “The stark black and white visual language was carefully crafted to heighten the inherent romance in the silent language of hair,” she explains.

The challenge was to find the right visuals to go with the vibe of the narration. With the no-shoot, no-travel restrictions, the team had to look through hours of stock footage to find visuals that played on the right moments like a flick of the hair, a blink of the eye or a shy smile. “The first edit was cut by us, in-house. Post that, we involved a few production houses to source relevant footage and the final product was ready in a month,” says Sharda.

With over 2.5 million views in two weeks, the ad has definitely struck a chord. “For this campaign, we have mapped out an extensive digital marketing plan to make the consumers a part of our journey,” says Taurani. For this, shorter 15-second videos, Instagram polls and stories, GIFs and even an influencer-driven engagement program is in the pipeline.

Now, you can either watch the ad and forget about it or actually do something about that mess on your head.