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Does it pay to be self deprecating? Beauty brands including Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, Ariana Grande’s R.E.M Beauty and Bobbi Brown’s Jones Road are finding that the answer is yes.
When Selling Sunset reality TV star Heather Rae El Moussa shared a TikTok saying “Revlon? I don’t wear Revlon” after finding a lip liner from the brand in her husband’s car and throwing the product away, Revlon responded with a tongue-in-cheek video of an employee pretending to catch the lip liner and saying, “Thanks girl, I’ve been looking for that!”
Revlon and El Moussa both confirmed to Vogue Business that the TikToks were not part of a paid partnership. “The video was all in good fun and meant to be a funny joke,” says El Moussa, adding that she saw Revlon’s response and thought it was “hilarious”. For Revlon, the interaction helped to drive significant traffic and awareness. Both the brand’s and El Moussa’s videos have each been viewed on TikTok more than 8 million times. Many followers applauded Revlon’s humour and said they would buy the product.
Celebrity brand founders, too, are finding success with self-deprecating humour. In August, actor, singer and entrepreneur Selena Gomez gave her makeup brand Rare Beauty a positive boost by poking fun at herself. Gomez shared the launch of the brand’s new Brow Harmony Flexible Lifting Gel on her personal Instagram with the caption “you know how much I love a laminated brow”. The remark was made in reference to a TikTok she posted in February after accidentally over-laminating her brows. The video promoting the brow gel had more than 4 million likes and fans responded enthusiastically with comments such as, “Talk about making lemonade out of lemons… smart business move.”
Singer-songwriter Ariana Grande took a similar approach in June when she shared a TikTok video mocking her past makeup looks before applying products that she deemed more suitable from her makeup and fragrance brand R.E.M Beauty. Grande’s followers laughed, leaving comments such as, “We’ve all been through that phase.” Makeup artist and Jones Road Beauty founder Bobbi Brown also went viral when she shared a parody video of herself applying the product in response to influencer Meredith Duxbury’s negative review of the brand’s foundation, which now has over 17.4 million views. By piggybacking on Duxbury’s content in a comical way, Brown’s video has amassed 4.8 million views.
Through public responses like Jones Road’s clapback, brands can better control their narrative, says Karen Correia da Silva, strategy director and head of futures at The Digital Fairy, a global creative agency specialising in youth culture. “TikTok has become the town square where creators and brands stand on equal footing and play off each other’s content. The constant [relationship] that brands have with audiences now, for example chatting in the comments section, has set the scene for other types of communication and even confrontation where they can show their wit.”
As the social media landscape becomes increasingly pay-to-play, making organic reach harder to attain, the push for engagement has led brands to opt for relatability over exclusivity. It’s a shift away from past approaches when brands sought to maintain integrity through a more autocratic tone. Today, as young consumers seek content that is authentic and entertaining, brands are tapping into Gen Z speak and cultural moments as a means to engage directly with their audiences and build greater loyalty. However, it’s a fine line to straddle and brands must ensure they don’t deviate too far from their identity.
There’s more that brands can do. Some 91 per cent of consumers prefer brands to be funny, yet 95 per cent of business leaders fear using humour in interactions, according to a 2022 survey by author-podcaster Gretchen Rubin and software firm Oracle of more than 12,000 consumers and executives globally. The report also found that 90 per cent of people are more likely to remember ads that are funny and 72 per cent would choose a humorous brand over the competition; yet, only 20 per cent of brands report using humour in offline ads and 18 per cent in online marketing.
For the most part, provocation sells, and a polarising approach tends to be most effective, says Tom Sweeney, head of strategy at Fanbytes by Brainlabs, a global media agency. “We’re all in a fight now for reach and engagement and we all just want to win and beat our competitors in terms of views and getting people to care about our brand,” he explains. “Provocation is one tactic that truly works because it creates conversation and social media is all about emotion. If you don’t care about something, you’re probably not going to engage with it.”
Controlling the narrative
The challenge, however, is that as social media becomes a staple in all digital marketing strategies, more stakeholders are now involved, creating more red tape in the approval process. Sweeney observes that brands are taking greater caution, especially if there’s a risk of polarisation, which can hurt business. But, “to create division is to create loyalty”, he argues. “If you can make someone take a side, they’re choosing to commit to the brand.” That’s vital for beauty brands, which have a vast arsenal of tools for customer recruitment and conversion, but struggle to create true loyalty, he believes.
The increasingly relaxed nature of how celebrities and influencers interact with the wider world has had a domino effect on how brands present themselves, observes Shannon Stocker, senior cultural analyst at global creative agency We Are Social. “Think about the viral moment when Dakota Johnston called out Ellen DeGeneres or the way Rihanna snaps at fans begging for a new album. This has normalised the idea of brands defending their position with the same immediacy and playfulness.” There’s also a greater push for realness, she adds. “People don’t want to see hyper-curated content. They’re more emotional, public and critical — and brands will need to replicate those attributes to fit in.”
Seriousness and groupthink are out, irreverent fun and individuality are in. TikTok is brimming over with hacks and roasts. While brands might prefer to watch from the sidelines, they may not have that choice.
It’s easier for founder-led brands to take a personality-driven approach. Grande’s parody TikTok video, for example, was an organic idea and not conceived by R.E.M Beauty’s marketing team, says CEO Michelle Shigemasa. “She had the idea of looking back on her beauty journey throughout the years and worked with our social team to iterate on sounds and trends that would be fun to play with.” The tactic has been effective, she notes. “We typically see a spike in both organic traffic and sales. These playful moments [are] a great chance to engage a broader audience outside of our core customer and to also highlight hero products in a thoughtful way.”
Modern-day marketing is about “more than selling a beautiful tagline”, says The Digital Fairy’s Correia da Silva. “Much like the parasocial relationships that people have with influencers, brands can drive affinity by adopting more silliness and low-stakes authenticity by reacting to and participating in culture.”
Striking the right tone
While engaging in clapbacks may seem like an easy quick win, brands need to find their voice and sustain it over time, Correia da Silva advises. “The most important element of success is tone. Brands perceived as lashing out at influencers or celebrities is a very bad look and not in keeping with the [lighthearted feel] of successful clapback stunts.” We Are Social’s Stocker shares a similar sentiment: “There has to be a tongue-in-cheek drama to it. Anything too serious can bring down the tone of the brand and feel like an ‘us versus them’ battle between brand and creator.”
There are sophisticated ways in which higher-end brands can respond, says Brainlabs’s Sweeney. For example, if a brand receives a negative review from an influencer or celebrity, it can respond by sharing educational content that shows how to create a beautiful look using the same product. “You still get to clap back in a way but do it in a way that fits your brand persona.”
Brands with high-profile founders can lean into their respective personalities, he adds. “If Charlotte Tilbury did a clapback, I can imagine the founder herself just rolling her eyes and saying ‘daaaaarling.’ When an influencer talks negatively about your brand, that’s actually the perfect time to do a brand partnership with them, because you can sponsor and teach them about the benefits of the brand.”
While it’s an inherently risky strategy, brands that know their audience well have a higher chance of getting it right, Sweeney says. In Bobbi Brown and Meredith Duxbury’s case, both parties won with their respective audiences, he observes. “Meredith’s style is deliberately provocative and makes you stop scrolling. The people who got it really understood and supported her, whereas people who are massive Bobbi Brown stans thought she was an idiot for not using the product correctly.” Ultimately, both nailed their tone, notes Sweeney. “Once you get that, you can really have fun with it and [your audience] will want to engage.”
After all, he laughs, “people love drama.”
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