A brilliant Parisian marketing campaign launched in March last year by Sephora, the international perfume and cosmetic giant is still turning heads more than a year later. The campaign consists simply of six powerful posters each with a quirky neologism superimposed across the face of a model with eye-catching make-up.
The cosmetic chain Sephora, (2012 turnover: US$3 billion according to Forbes), was founded in Paris in the 1970’s. The name is a melding of ‘sephos’ (Greek for beauty) and Zipporah, the exceptionally beautiful wife of Moses.
Sephora’s French copywriter created the following six words to convey the notion that every woman is able to fully express her individual beauty and uniqueness: glamourisme; rayonescence; fascinance; sublimitude; bombassitude; attractionisme – via their product offerings, of course. The words have specifically been designed with stickiness in mind, i.e. to have the maximum retention value in the potential consumer’s mind.The white horizontal lines of the Sephora brand mark are reinforced in certain letters of the individual neologism, with the image presented as an eye-popping fractal pyramid. Together, the marriage of the neologism and image evoke a strong sense of aspirational individuality in a world of mass consumerism.
Let’s deconstruct the following poster with the tag word BOMBASSITUDE:
The English adjective ‘bombastic’ springs to mind. From the old French ‘bombace’ (cocoon), this etymological origin is revealing. It would suggest that the newly coined word signifies a state of mind or being in which the ego, puffed up like a pupa and protected by its cosy shell, feels proud and safe. This ostensible arrogance is stripped of its impertinence, with an understated ‘You can’t touch me’ attitude. In this context, bombassitude is a tongue-in-cheek state of luxuriating in self-worth, for flambuoyancy rather than self aggrandisement. It expresses a woman’s prerogative to be herself – marrying hyperfeminism, feminism and futurism, all at once.
