You have just watched a video for the MAC Cosmetics Hello Kitty Collection.
Confused?
I’m sure you thought you were watching a music video directed by someone with with an Alice in Wonderland fetish during an acid flashback. I have to admit, at first, I did too.
MAC Cosmetics is recognized as a fashion forward cosmetics company, and they are constantly releasing new collections in correlation with the hottest trends. Some collections are even designed by some of fashions hottest designer, such as Heatherette. They are definitely not your mother’s Estee Lauder.
What’s most interesting about this video, is that unlike most marketing videos, you see absolutely no placement of the MAC name or logo. They spent a huge chunk of change to rely on product placement (and I use this term very lightly) to get the point across. All of the models are dolled up in colors from the collection, but if you didn’t know what you were watching, there’s no way you would every know that. The only thing you would walk away from this video with, is a sense that Hello Kitty just joined the ranks of Heidi Fleiss, and is working as a high-priced S&M call girl in West Hollywood.
There are millions of ways to be creative with a 5 minute marketing video, and several companies have done just that, but what do you stand to gain from marketing a brand with absolutely no tie-in to the product or brand identifiers available. If anything, someone searching for Hello Kitty on the internet may just be in for the surprise of their life, and walk away with a bad taste in their mouth for both Hello Kitty and MAC…if they ever find out what it is.
