Clariol Advertising slogan, tagline: Does she or doesn’t she?
In the 1950s, most women didn’t dye hair by their own, because women who did so were considered overly fixated on their looks or of ill repute. A visit to salon which was allowed would take hours. Lawrence M. Gelb, the co-founder and chemist saw the vacuum in the consumer mindspace and created the product which would bring down the process to 20 minutes. However, he had to win another perception battle, he needed to convince women they could dye their hair without anyone being the wiser. Thus, the original concept of ‘does she…doesn’t she’ was born.
After seven years of research, Miss Clairol Hair Color Bath was introduced to the market in a primarily print-based ad campaign developed by Foote, Cone & Belding. Shirley Polykoff, the only female copywriter in the agency at the time, developed a tagline to convey just how natural the hair color looked: “Does she … or doesn’t she?”
Women immediately understood the meaning behind the tagline, but men often applied sexual connotations to the titillating phrase. So as not to alienate an important segment of their customer base — hair salons — the Miss Clairol ads began including the sub-head, “Hair color so natural only her hairdresser knows for sure!” Source
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