{"id":371,"date":"2014-09-23T11:03:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T09:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/?p=371"},"modified":"2014-09-26T10:13:44","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T08:13:44","slug":"bombassitude-a-french-spin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/bombassitude-a-french-spin","title":{"rendered":"Bombassitude… a French spin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1571\"<\/a><\/strong>\"1633\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A brilliant Parisian marketing campaign launched in March last year by Sephora, the\u00a0international perfume and cosmetic giant\u00a0 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\u00a0eye-catching make-up.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cosmetic chain Sephora, (2012 turnover:\u00a0US$3\u00a0billion according to Forbes),\u00a0was<\/span> founded in Paris in the 1970’s. The name\u00a0is a melding of \u00a0‘sephos’ (Greek for\u00a0beauty) and Zipporah, the exceptionally beautiful wife of Moses.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sephora’s\u00a0French copywriter created the following six\u00a0words to convey the notion that every woman\u00a0is able to fully\u00a0express her individual beauty and uniqueness: glamourisme; rayonescence; fascinance; sublimitude; bombassitude; attractionisme \u2013 via their product offerings, of course. The words\u00a0have specifically been\u00a0designed with stickiness in mind, i.e. to have the maximum retention value in the potential consumer’s mind.<\/span>The white horizontal lines of the Sephora brand mark\u00a0are reinforced in\u00a0certain letters of the individual neologism, with\u00a0the\u00a0image presented as an eye-popping fractal pyramid. Together, the marriage of the\u00a0neologism and image evoke a strong sense of aspirational individuality in a world of mass consumerism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"1632\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \"1631\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s deconstruct the following poster with the tag word BOMBASSITUDE:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"1572\"<\/a>The English adjective \u2018bombastic\u2019 springs to mind. From\u00a0the old French \u2018bombace\u2019 (cocoon), this etymological origin is revealing.\u00a0It would suggest that the\u00a0newly 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\u00a0and safe. This ostensible arrogance is stripped of its impertinence, with an understated \u2018You can\u2019t touch me\u2019 attitude. I<\/span>n this context,\u00a0bombassitude is\u00a0a tongue-in-cheek state of luxuriating in self-worth, for\u00a0flambuoyancy rather than\u00a0self aggrandisement. It expresses a woman\u2019s prerogative to be herself \u2013\u00a0marrying hyperfeminism, feminism and futurism, all at once.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A brilliant Parisian marketing campaign launched in March last year by Sephora, the\u00a0international perfume and cosmetic giant\u00a0 is still turning heads more than a year later. The campaign consists simply of six powerful posters each with a quirky neologism superimposed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-sticky-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavinford.com\/thinkspot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}