Dandruff Makes You Look Stupid

Head & Shoulders is a shampoo company designed to eliminate dandruff. They recently released colorful illustrations of smart men who are scratching their heads. But they are not scratching because they are thinking as one may assume, they are scratching because of dandruff. All are paired with the tagline “Dandruff makes you look stupid.” It plays on people’s desire to look good and these illustrations show that having dandruff can you hold you back. Therefore, only with Head & Shoulders shampoo will you look desirable, smart, and accomplished.

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The objective of the campaign ties into these emotions to strive to look and be more. They want to tap into this possible insecurity of lack of confidence to convince its consumers that they need Head & Shoulders shampoo. The target market of this campaign is narrowed down to men shown by only men in the illustrations. The age range is around 20-60 which would include young adults who aspire to be in the exciting positions of these men, and those currently working in these high stress jobs.

Other companies such as Dove and Neutrogena create products that help eliminate dandruff, but Head & Shoulders is the only one that makes it the focus of their entire company. This positioning allows for the opportunity that whenever someone may begin to experience dandruff, their mind will go straight to Head & Shoulders as the cure. Mine certainly does when dandruff is mentioned and I have friends who use it for that very reason. Head & Shoulders shampoo is also generally less expensive than other dandruff eliminating shampoos which is positive.

The biggest strength of this campaign is the design. At first your eyes go to the man’s situation and you conclude it is a stressful environment. Next, you realize the man is scratching his head because he is thinking, before noticing the white flakes falling from his head. You then notice that the situation isn’t stressful and the answer to each given situation is obvious, therefore, they look stupid for scratching their heads like they’re thinking. Thinking in these situations is not necessary. Then you notice the Head & Shoulders shampoo bottle in the corner of the illustration. The bottle stands out from the rest and has a light glimmering from the bottle cap symbolizing this is the heavenly solution that will cause all your problems, not just the dandruff. The blunt tagline, “Dandruff makes you look stupid” is another strength targeting possible insecurities and creating a reason that the target market should fix their dandruff problem.

A possible weakness to the campaign is that there is a lot going on in each illustration. The obvious answer to the problem at hand and the product in the corner can be lost if someone just glances at it. The purpose would be lost. However, the beautiful details and engaging situations draw in consumers to look for more than a few seconds so they will notice the cleverness behind the campaign.