The other bloke in the video seems a perfect publicity choice for the men-who-wear-make-up market. I had a quick look at his Twitter and he’s both model good looking AND actually knows about hair styling and make up application (although I did spot a bit of a weird post, my paraphrase, ‘what would you do if I taught your Spanish class?’ but no reason to assume it’s sinister, he’s not actually addressing children, he might’ve been thinking college classes, and he’s Puerto Rican so he was probably thinking more about the ‘Spanish’ bit than anything to do with schools. Hopefully he’ll delete it now people have pointed out how it comes across to others outside of his fashion runway, celeb lifestyles, social group).
But Dylan is just such an odd choice, except, as one of the Twitter comments points out, for the fact that Dylan has generated a massive viral audience that the brand can now try and flog their wares to.
Choosing Dylan has got nothing to do with inclusion or diversity and everything to do with capitalising on the algorithms that made Dylan famous.
Ulta are using the language of social justice but it’s entirely hollow. Ulta is a corporate identity wearing a clumsily designed cloak in an attempt disguise itself as member of a vulnerable and marginalised group.
Oh! Hold on… now I’ve written that out, maybe Dylan is the perfect choice for Ulta after all?