Dior and Kate Moss’s Groundhog Day lipstick ad

I’m always on the quest for the perfect lipstick/lipgloss. Favourites include my MAC ‘Plushglass’ Lipgloss in a colour called “Oversexed” (it’s actually a really subtle colour despite the name!) and my Dior Addict Plastic Gloss. I’ve been known to spend months and ££££s hunting high and low, looking for the perfect nude that matches my exacting colour and consistency demands. Nars for example is way too runny to be any good but Laura Mercier is much better.

So I was all eyes when I saw the latest Kate Moss TV make up ad. Now in this space, Kate has become synonymous with Rimmel London. For what seems like forever, she’s been the poster girl for this brand and really captured its essence and nonchalant attitude with her ‘verging on the brazen’ screen presence.

Towards the end of the new ad however I had a double take. Sitting in the back of a smart car putting on her stockings (as you do) and applying her gorgeous lipstick with supreme confidence I saw the words Dior Addict appear – see here for a long version of the ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcedTrWRcs.

Now I love Dior Addict, but this ad confused me. Whether or not Kate is no longer the face of Rimmel, awareness and collective memory is harder to erase than even the longest lasting Rimmel foundation she advertised in the back of a black cab not that long ago – see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y72iMG8egpM from 1 minute 50 seconds. The two ads have way too much in common. Both involve getting dressed in the back of a moving vehicle followed by make-up application.

But the much bigger question is what happens when a brand icon moves on. Undoubtedly Kate has probably out-grown Rimmel’s core demographic, but surely there are pitfalls in her fronting the same sort of product range, albeit at a different price point.

I’m not sure I know the answer, but I certainly feel slightly uneasy about this. While it certainly won’t stop me going out to buy the lovely Dior colour Kate is sporting (and by the way, why can’t the ad tell me which colour it actually is?!), I do feel that Dior could have thought this one through a bit better.