If you got a package addressed to Demi Moore or Zoe Saldaña, would you open it?
Last week, more than 1,000 people received PR packages from Lancôme. Many were content creators who had received free products from the L’Oréal-owned beauty brand before. But something was different this time: the mailers were addressed to A-list actresses Demi Moore and Zoe Saldaña.
“I think this package was meant for someone else,” plastic surgeon and content creator Monica Kieu says in a TikTok. She explains the process of opening a package from Lancôme, reading a note addressed to someone named Zoe inside, and then checking the label and feeling surprised to see Saldaña’s name instead of her own.
“Zoe, if you’re missing a PR package, I might know where it is,” she says in the video. “Lancôme, I love you, I’m flattered—let me know what you want me to do with this package.”
The brand responded by commenting, “Oh no, we’ll have to look into this mix-up.”
When big names such as Kate Hudson, Pauline Chalamet, and Refinery29 chief content officer Brooke DeVard also posted content that showed themselves receiving packages addressed to Moore and Saldaña, it became clear that the mix-ups were an orchestrated marketing stunt to advertise Lancôme’s new skin care products. (Especially since they tagged these posts as paid partnerships.)
Moore and Saldaña then each shared videos saying that anyone who received a package with their name on it from the brand could keep it. “Finders keepers,” Moore quips in hers.
If Lancôme was aiming to go viral, it’s safe to say it achieved that goal. Hudson’s unboxing video got 2.1 million views on Instagram, while Chalamet’s got 56,000 and DeVard’s got 36,700.
Why Lancôme’s strategy worked
Celebrity and creator-founded brands such as Rhode and Reale Actives are dominating the beauty marketing space right now, making it difficult for legacy brands like Lancôme to stand out. The Paris-based label, which perfumer Armand Petitjean founded in 1935 and L’Oréal acquired in 1964, has long used Hollywood stars to market its products.
Lancôme’s new campaign puts a fresh twist on that strategy. Plus, it smartly uses the internet’s natural propensity for scandal to its advantage.
Feature image credit: Adobe Stock