Benefit cosmetics advert, aimed at young women to 'Skip class, not concealer'

[cowgirlsareforever]

How the hell do they think they can get away with this crap? Apparently Debenhams have agreed to take down the adverts but why put them up in the first place

Benefit used to be a heavyweight luxury brand, but like so many others they're racing to the bottom both in product and image.

I agree, that is a pretty shitty advert.

Big fat marketing FAIL there, Benefit.

It is trying to be cool and edgy that is all but it is ridiculous, benefit make up is all the rage in the under 20s how parents can afford it ifor school girls beyond me I bought 19yr old eyeliner and a pallete for christmas cost me £60 when i was a student i was wearing no7 & rimmel

Makes it look like a brand for vacuous idiots.

Bloody awful - not exactly aspirational positioning from Benefit is it? I am getting really sick of this shit, some of it is subtle undermining of women and this blatant stuff just makes me think we are going backwards.

It makes me tired.

Showing up your low opinion of your customers in your advertising. Smart.

Gerald Ratner is being invoked like mad today. What with Dove's latest fail and now this.

I really believe that a lot of big companies have total contempt for their customers. Why else would they dream up this shit?

Doesn't matter if you've no GCSEs, as long as you look pretty.

I concur PippaFawcett. It shows contempt for their customers but also for women and girls generally. Even on its own it's a damaging enough message but in the context of a society where girls learn so young that our primary value is deemed to lie with our looks it's even more so. To have a company pushing this line, reinforcing the message girls and women should alter our appearance and spend as much time as it takes to look acceptable for the outside world (as our natural faces are of course not sufficient, unlike boys' and men's) - at the expense of anything else. School is unimportant as education is not as important for girls as being pleasing to the male gaze. That the advertising campaign was thought up and run with shows how accepted this view of girls is - and how happy all involved with it at every stage are to reinforce that belief in girls.

Spot on NoLoveOfMine

Has someone done a parody of it titled "Skip concealer, not class"?

(I imagine that could be really funny. Show a girl happily learning for school, going to class, looking at the cosmetic product with a frown and then throwing it out of the window, all with the happy music usually accompanying such spots)

I hope someone will. This needs to be mocked. (And countered)

Brilliant idea vestal

Mac should do it as they are their closet competitor if my knowledge of teenagers is still relevant.

Closest

Fixed it.

I'm really sick of protesting stuff at this level. Its insidious.

VestalVirgin

Brilliant. It should be fast forwarded she show her financially independent buying her own car, house, etc.

Great work alpacasandwich.

I very much like the sound of this alternative advertisement with Datun's concluding scene. This far superior campaign needs running.

Can't imagine Debenhams have many scruples anyway- there's a huge poster in the makeup department in my local one which basically says that 'pretty is not enough, you need to be beautiful' - in those words. Not sure which brand it is, but might be benefit?

"Skip class, nick concealer" might be more accurate with the girl in the ad dodging a store detective.

Ugh that's grim - and I love makeup and previously, Benefit.

I always think of girls like Malala when I see things like this. Yeah it might be deemed as OTT but I just can't help thinking of the fight and incredible spotlight she has shone on girls around the world getting an education, and then something like this comes along and just trivialises school and the importance of education.

I don't understand it as an advert.

She looks wasted/ exhausted/hungover. I took from the photo that the message would be - " you look terrible, but don't skip class- slap on some concealer".

If you are skipping class anyway isn't the concealer redundant?

WashingMatilda even though you had loved Benefit I hope you can avoid purchasing their products now. Unfortunately I fear for all the people who've challenged them on this (and it's excellent women and girls have) companies don't actually care about any of this unless their sales suffer.

I also don't think you're being over the top at all. It's hugely regressive - it goes beyond trivialising school but overtly tells girls their appearance is more important than their education (and their appearance isn't acceptable without makeup).

NoLoveOfMine yes, don't worry - I will not be buying from them again.
And I'm their target audience.
I had been thinking about doing so anyway, after this ridiculous mascara advert which was plastered all over Boots and culminated in my stepson asking me in the queue 'Why has that lady got pretend boobies?'

and their concealer is shit anyway