Golden Locks

What the fees are like for a curl

What?: Unilever allegedly paid Madonna $10M to front a new advertising campaign for Sunsilk hair-care products. As part of the Life Can Wait campaign, Madonna made a five-second appearance in a Sunsilk ad at the Super Bowl (Unilever’s only ad purchase at the event). The advert also features stock footage of Shakira and Marilyn Monroe and includes the Madonna track, ‘Ray of Light’.

The Sunsilk line, although established globally, was only introduced to the US market in 2006. Unilever spent a massive $100M on the initial launch campaign. The Super Bowl ad aimed to build on this by targeting the 40.5M women who would be watching the adverts more than the game. The company based its ad on a survey of 3,000 consumers that revealed 20-something women find having “good” hair is a trigger for seizing opportunities.

So what?: Super Bowl ads cost $100,000 per second, however Madonna can command $2M per second. Shakira only pocketed $2.5M from Unilever and Girls Aloud only managed £1.25M to front a recent UK campaign. With Madonna sitting on $72M from her Confessions tour, the Material Girl is still the most bankable woman in pop. The ad itself falls slightly flat do to bad editing and the tongue-twisting wording of its tag line, “their hair tells their story”. Madonna and Monroe also seem an odd fit for the target demographic of 18-to-25-year-olds.

“The ad uses great songs but nothing new. It’s boring old-style celebrity endorsement marketing with no added extras and will probably be forgotten before either Shakira or Madonna wash their hair again.”
Ruth Mortimer, Editor, Brand Strategy

www.lifecantwait.com