An Interview with Ronald Rosenfeld(4)
Ronald Rosenfeld
J.W.Thompson Co.,
Senior Vice President,
Creative Supervisor
Ron The other ad was the Great Day ad, men's hair coloring. It was a very difficult problem because most men when you mention haie-dye tend to link it with another subject; "Cee! that's not a thing a man would do!" In fact my response originally, when I knew we had the product and I was going to advertise it, was to respond more or less the same way. But then I thought about it. I thought it perfectly reasonable that a man should want to look younger, should want to look better --- he buts well-cut suits and ties and dhirts --- and that if his hair makes him look much older than he really is, it is all right to do as long as we could take away the aura of femininity from men's hair coloring.
So then, I did the headline which was "Put your --- "
It was a face of a photograph that showed a man with half his head grey and harf his head colored dark.
We actually did this. We took a grey haieed man and dyed harf of his haie. The headline said "Put your hand over the grey half and see how much younger he looks." And then there was a copy that went on to say, "Now take you hand off the grey anf put it on the dark half and see how much older he looks. And if you go back and forth you'll see the amazing difference that the dark hair makes how much making him look young." And the copy was written in the old school of advertising, the kind of John Cayble's, long copy format that has not been done too much in the last twenty or thirty years. But I thought this product needed a lot of copy, a sort of bulk story. I had to deal with a lot of objection that men would have to use the product. So,I had to face the problem, the objection one by one on the copy, and this was we what I came to do. It was a fairly successful ad, I think.
Put your hand over the gray harf
and see how much younger I look.
Cover the gray hair in the photo and the years go, Cover the dark hair and the years come clumping back.
young / old / young / old / young / old / young / old---it happens every time you shift your hand, Which goes to prove just one thing, Gray hair makes you look older. And dark hair makes you look younger.
But we suspect you've known that all along. Then how come you didn't do something about it before now?
We suspect you know the answer to that one. too.
The embarrassment.
The embarrassment of having to stand in a crowded drugstore and ask, nervously, for a
bottle of women's haircoloring "for-uh-your wife:"
The embarrassment of having friends (and unfriends) spot what you did because it
looked phoney-and kid you about it-"Hey, fellows, look---Charley dyed his hair."
The embarrassment of having to suffer through a complicated haircoloring routineplus the fear that it would hurt your hair, and be expensive,
And finally, there was the biggest embarrassment of all-the funy feeling that doing
something to your gray was too flashy, too "show biz" not something a "regular fellow"
ought to do.
GREAT DAY
For Men
Well, let's take the last worry first. Becausse if we can get you over that one, we have a new product that solves all the other problems. (It's callcd "Great Day." From Clairol Research. More about it later.)
More Men
Than You Think
It may have been true ten years ago that only a few actor colored their hair. But since then a minor, and somewhat surprising, revolution has taken place. (Surprising when you consider that there hasn't even been a really good men's product on the market until now.) Today it's estimatcd that over 2,000,000 men from all walks of life have hroken with tradition and have done something about their gray hair. And most of them have never even set foot on a stage. Except maybe to make a speech. Already, a lot of very proper bankers, lawyers, brokers, doctors, advertising executives, sales managers, government people, farmers, longshoremcn, teachers, truck drivers and police officers do it. Without blushing.
They all have one thing in common: they don't want to look old before their time. (And nothing makes a man look old before his time like gray hair,) Some men want to look younger for personal reasons, others for professional reasons. (Let's face it, unfair as it
may be, a premium is put on youth in our society. Today, if a middle-aged executive looks too old he may be in a weakened competitive position within his company. And if he has to go out to look for a job, he's in an even worse position.)
You're Fooled
EveryDay
Dozens of men who pass you on the street every day have taken the premature gray out of their hair. Some you notice. Some you don't. But to get that unnoticeable color most of them have had to spend a small fortune having it done professionally with complicated products that cost $8, $10, even $12 an application. Or else they're using their wives.
Clairol haircolorillg...which is fine for women bnt just wasn't designed for a man's haircoloring needs.
Now, finally there's a product designed especially for men---a product that won't embarrass you in any way. Great Day. With Creat Day a man can return his graying hair to a soft, rich, natural-looking color in the privacy of his own hath room, or have it done in any good barber shop. Without any of the worries.
Great Day works like a shmpoo. Once every two weeks or so (depending: on how fast your hair grows), you pour it on---straight from the hbottle.No mixing needed.)
Lather it in, let it sit, rinse it off. No complications. Leather it on a few miniutes each time, and you color the grayl gradually. If you want to take the plunge all at once, just leave it on longer before rinsing.
Nobody Notices
Great Day doesn't change ypur natural hair color. It only works on the gray. The change is subtle. Amazingly, even though you're very conscious of what you've done, experience has shown that most people don't even notice the difference in color. Only the effect. "Say, Charley. you look great. Did you lose weight or something?"
Your Pillow
Won'tTalk
Great Day goes inside your gray hair shalfts. So it can't rush off on your collar, or on the pillow. It contains no peroxide in any form. So it can't make your hair glow with orangey- red highlights. It dosn't harm your hair in any way. (Actually, it leaves yom hair in better condition.) It doesn't affect the texture of your hair at all. But just by making it darker, it doee make it look somewhat fuller. (Nobody will mind that extra benefit.)
Great Day is made hy Clairol, the world's leaging authority on hircoloring. RememBer the Clairor slogan "Hair color so natural only her" hairdresser knows for sure? WelL, after yearrs of laboratory work and thousands of tests on gfrey-haired men, now Clairol can say, "Hair (color so natura1 only his barber knows for sure. And unless your barber applied it to your hair himself, even he won't be absolutely certain.
Muster up your courage a little---and do something ahout your grey hair.
It's nice to look young.