"Any Hair, Anywhere"

28 April 2025

30s

Look hair!

Don't you just love it when an agency develops a swagger? Pablo are entering one of those purple patches when everything they do seems attention-grabbing, and this film for Wilkinson Sword is no exception. The great thing about this kind of ascendency is that it appears to give an agency the confidence to win all the little arguments that can sit between a piece of work being chiselled into mediocrity by client feedback, and it remaining true to the conceit dreamt up in the creative department. You can smell it when it's happening, and it's definitely happening at Pablo.

It also tends to raise the game of the other participants, and the contribution here from director Marielle Heller (and the talented people around her) is outstanding.

The ad becomes part of a growing canon of work in this sector (and other related sectors) which subtly subverts the norms of the beauty industry... most particularly the long-held idea that that women should be readying themselves for the scrutiny of the male gaze. This notion has been superseded by a grittier, more realistic depiction of women which is a lot more relatable for enough of the target market to mean it's a piece of advertising that will shift product... and make Wilkinson Sword a champion of values better suited to the female empowerment than competitors inclined to glamourise unrealistically.

UK

Shaving Equipment (Female)