A brave new campaign
Mature women give Carefree responses to feminine products in plan to build trust
INSTEAD of a corporate brand telling the younger generation what to expect of the future, it has turned to the people who have been there and done that.
A young creative team in their 20s and 30s in the Sydney office of advertising agency DDB Sydney has developed a marketing campaign for Carefree’s female hygiene products with its essence being matriarchal trust.
Four women – Krissy Stanley, 68, Griz Pomirska, 67, Yvonne Tozzi, 60, and Gayle Foster-Brown, 69 – talk in the advertisement about what they remember of their teenage to pre-menopause years while reviewing the current crop of Carefree products.
It’s cheeky, bright and brutally honest.
Silver Creek’s retail marketing executive Stuart Cumming said this Carefree advertisement was groundbreaking with its use of women of more than double the age of the target market age group having an authentic conversation with the younger generations.
“It comes down to people believing they are listening to something authentic, then builds the trust,” Mr Cumming said.
“The Carefree ad was all about authentic storytelling. Marketing has certainly been heading in that direction in the last five years at least.
“It makes sense to have someone with experience talking as that feeds into the authenticity.”
DDB Sydney executive creative director Tara Ford said the creative team came up with the idea without her input.
“I am absolutely delighted when I see work like that because I am so conscious of women of a certain age absolutely disappearing from media landscapes or playing a kind of passive role in things,” Ms Ford said.
“I know so many hilarious older people who are so sassy, so smart and have wisdom, so why don’t we show that for a change?”
Carefree’s approach to its product range, Ms Ford said, was unapologetically feminine.
She argues it’s that approach that lends itself well to honest and open discussion.
And who better to have that kind of women’s issues discussion than older women, Ms
Ford said.
“The older you get, the more you can say and do whatever you like, and you don’t really worry so much about what people think, how you are going to look,” Ms Ford, who is in her late 40s, adds.
The creative team recognise a lot of older superstars are popping up on Instagram and the younger generations are relating to them.
They are seen as being themselves, having fun and, at times, being outrageous.
“They tapped into that quite a lot,” Ms Ford said.
The women, coined The Matriarchs, were drawn out of a casting call.
They were presented with a handful of questions with their answers to become part of the advertisement.
None of their responses were scripted so they were highly candid.
The Matriarchs projected confidence, self-worth and unashamed enjoyment at being where they were with a lot of life knowledge.
“We never really discussed it. We never talked about a period, we never talked about sex, we never talked about depression,” Yvonne says in the video.
But times have changed, a lot.
“Did you have seepage? Did you have leakage? We all talk about it now,” Krissy said.
“But when I was a kid, you didn’t talk about it.”
The online campaign has been very successful for Carefree.
“Love it! No topic should be off limits in these modern times,” is just one of the responses to the campaign.
Will we see more involvement of older Australians in the endorsement of products?
Mr Cumming said it was really about the right person connecting with the target market.