Eva Longoria Directs, Hair Colors Herself In At-Home L’Oréal Spot From McCann Paris & NY

Since the onset of the pandemic and the mandate for self-isolation, at-home hair color sales have grown, driven by an explosion of ecommerce transactions bringing new users back into the at-home hair color category. As people quarantine and practice social distancing, consumers still have a desire to keep up their beauty routines. 

L’Oréal set out to provide an authentic and relevant take on the joy and ease of coloring your hair at home. Thus in a beauty-industry first, L’Oréal Paris has unveiled its debut television commercial created at home, directed by and starring L’Oréal Paris spokesperson Eva Longoria, with support from McCann Paris and New York. Illustrating the Excellence Crème at-home hair color range, the campaign proves that staying at home is no barrier to bringing out the best in your hair. Working from home just took on a glamorous and fun new look, that can brighten up your mood in the process. 

The challenge was how to capture this story while the world was isolating and traditional production options severely limited. The idea: Give Excellence spokesperson Longoria two iPhones to direct the TV spot herself. A detailed pre-production book was fashioned to facilitate the process. The spot was shot in her home in Los Angeles with McCann Paris providing her with direction via Microsoft Teams. Longoria did her own hair and makeup and applied the actual L’Oréal Excellence Hair Color product to herself.

The L’Oréal Paris Excellence campaign will run across all digital and social platforms in addition to broadcast television. This new Excellence Crème campaign is one of the ways in which L’Oréal Paris is transforming and innovating its communications during the Covid-19 crisis. The brand is providing genuine connection and support for its followers via dedicated content on Instagram, Facebook, and through its campaigns. The campaign will run in L’Oreal Paris’ core markets (US, UK, France, Germany), and will also roll out in additional countries.

Longoria said, “When my L’Oréal family approached me to do this campaign, I was excited to direct this first of its kind commercial.  It’s a challenging time for everyone right now as we try and juggle all of our responsibilities and the needs of our loved ones, but it’s also important to remember to take care of ourselves. In this commercial, viewers can see how easy it is to get expert results and the confidence boost they deserve while at home. Self-care is self-worth and now, more than ever, we are all worth it!” 

Julien Calot, executive creative director at McCann Paris, added, “As the advertising agency for L’Oreal Paris, it was important for us at McCann to adapt to global confinement, and to quickly find and implement new communication approaches. We asked ourselves, “How do we make a homemade film. Low key. 100% real.’ L’Oréal Paris has always been by the side of all women, and that is what we wanted to show through this film.”