Campaign Trail: Neutrogena’s ‘90s nostalgia pulls the rug on aging consumers

Brands proceed to look to the Nineteen Nineties to attach with millennial consumers around the looks, icons, jingles and even prices from that halcyon decade. And as potent as “remember whenever you were young” will be, what’s more thumb-stopping than “remember: you’re getting old”?

That twist on nostalgia is at the core of “Neutrogena Remembers,” a campaign from the Kenvue beauty brand created with agency BBDO New York. The effort tells consumers that in the event that they remember specific moments and memories from the ‘90s, then it could be time to make use of its Rapid Wrinkle Repair Cream and newly launched Rapid Wrinkle Repair Serum products.

Neutrogena didn’t need to be just one other brand jumping on the nostalgia train, stoking emotional responses in consumers and nostalgia-washing their campaign, explained Alex Booker, executive creative director at BBDO New York.

“What we desired to do was lure people in with that nostalgic thing that we all know they love… that little trip down memory lane, but then doing that rug pull… [using] it as that trigger to remind you that you simply’re actually just a little older than you think that it’s possible you’ll be,” Booker said.

The campaign’s hero film begins with an iconic moment from ‘90s show “Beverly Hills, 90210” when Donna (Tori Spelling) asked David (Brian Austin Green) to marry her, before turning the camera to disclose a board-certified dermatologist who brings viewers back right down to earth: “If you remember rooting for Donna and David, it could be time to start out using Neutrogena Retinol Regenerating Cream.”

Additional spots use the same “for those who remember” framework around other items, including landlines, teen magazines and inflatable furniture, in rooms styled to appear and feel decade-specific by director Maris Jones, a social media favorite who has worked with musician Chappell Roan and does every part from filming and editing to music and sound design.

“We desired to work with someone that may authentically recreate those worlds with that audience and does it with a tremendous bent on style,” Booker said. “She really transports you into those worlds.”

A return to relevancy

For Neutrogena, the campaign is a technique to construct relevancy with a contemporary beauty audience that has flocked to social media platforms like TikTok, where skincare-centered #SkinTok has racked up greater than 4 billion posts, explained Chris Riat, vice chairman and global Neutrogena brand leader at Kenvue.

“We have an enormous history of merging beauty and science together, but we have now been a bit disconnected from culture for a while,” Riat said. “Today, beauty is actually a culture. It’s a community, it’s extremely social, and for us, it’s super essential that we connect with our consumers where they’re.”

Neutrogena sought to bring latest energy to the wrinkle repair products and deliver a message that’s pro-aging. To accomplish that, BBDO keyed in on nostalgia as a hook — noting the interest in ‘90s meme pages and other throwback content — before delivering the campaign’s real message to a target market that’s beginning to see the gray hairs and eye wrinkles of aging.

“How will we use [aging] in a extremely fun technique to give people who little little bit of a push toward the brand? Obviously, it must be done very delicately,” Booker said. “You cannot just get on the market and call people old and hit them with that truth bomb.”

To provide you with the familiar bits of nostalgia that would soften the blow, BBDO’s team relived the ‘90s, literally for the half of the team that grew up during the decade and vicariously for the folks born after it. The team wanted memorable items that were Proustian without being “bleedingly obvious.” 

“The teen magazine and the butterfly clips link us back into the beauty space, which is so essential for us as a brand,” Booker said. “Some of the others sit on the peripheral, but we use them as those triggers to take you back right into a time.”

Neutrogena sees potential in the campaign to grow as a platform by observing how consumers engage with the effort of their social feeds and searching for other touchpoints which might be resonant. As examples, Booker suggests possibly disrupting ‘90s playlists on Spotify or activating around shopping malls.