Want your marketing to stand out?

In the 60s, beauty brands began running full-color print ads.

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L'Oréal. 
Revlon. 
Helena Rubinstein. 

These full-color, full-page ads were vibrant, beautiful, and completely unprecedented for the time. 

The ads looked alive. 

Consumers weren’t used to that. The new style was exciting. It created a buzz.

So Revlon and L'Oréal and Helena Rubinstein and the rest of the industry doubled down. Magazines became saturated with full-color ads. It became the new standard.

Estée Lauder, co-founder of her namesake brand, recognized this shift. She saw an opportunity. 

“If we run full-color ads, we’re going to look like our competitors,” said Lauder. “We’ll blend in.”

True.

When creative is on-trend — whether it’s the copywriting or design — it runs the risk of blending in, of becoming indistinguishable, especially at first glance.

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“Let’s try something different,” said Lauder.

Estée’s next print campaign ran ads in sepia. They were void of color. 

Her competitors called the ads “ugly.” 

But those ugly ads pulled 30% more sales than Estée Lauder’s previous full-color campaign. 

Master copywriter, Eugene Schwartz, said it best: 

“The ugly thing in a world of beauty stands out.” 

Want your marketing to stand out?

Make it “ugly.”

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