New Shiseido ad showing girl to boy transformations goes viral

Published: 4-Nov-2015

The ad has already attracted around seven million views

Shiseido’s latest advertising campaign has hit more than 7,000,000 views in just two weeks. The ad is one of the first from the Japanese cosmetics giant after it revealed its new focus on “empathy”.

The new ad, directed by Shõ Yanagisawa, shows a teacher opening the door to her classroom and pans slowly across her female class before focusing on the page of a book that one of them is reading. The page reads (in Japanese): “Did you notice the boys in the classroom?”

The camera then moves back across the room, with stop-motion effects reversing the makeovers given to all the students, who are all revealed to be male. The ad ends with a shot of Shiseido make-up displayed around a hand-written note that reads: “Anyone can be cute”.

The ad was shot in just one take and took more than seven hours to film from start to finish, with all of the students staying in place throughout. It was created by Japanese agency Watts of Tokyo and is being shown during TV commercials in Japan. It is also available worldwide on YouTube.

Shiseido has also released a Behind the Scenes clip on YouTube, called “We make everyone look cute”, revealing which products its team of make-up artists and hairdressers used to create all the looks.

Last month, Shiseido announced that it intended to reposition itself, driven by a belief in “beauty as a positive force in the world”. Advertising released earlier in the year featured Lady Gaga alongside the caption: “Be Yourself”.

The ad also taps into a wider trend for androgynous looks and body-positive advertising.

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