Kylie Cosmetics’ pink mascara tube whooshing through subway might look familiar
Maybe she’s born with it – or maybe it’s imitation. New work from Kylie Cosmetics and Asos bears a resemblance to a recent Maybelline New York campaign.
Kylie Cosmetics, the brand founded by influencer Kyle Jenner, recently unveiled a social campaign to announce the sale of its products on Asos.com. The augmented reality (AR) ad depicts a pale pink mascara tube winding its way through a subway station on the London Underground.
Pink-mascara-tube-meets-train-in-AR might sound familiar. Just a few weeks prior, L’Oréal’s Maybelline New York released a campaign on TikTok showing a pink tube of Maybelline Sky High mascara being applied to oversized eyelashes adorning the front of a train as it passed through a London station (see video below).
Since going live, the ad has accrued over 275,000 views and more than 27,600 comments on TikTok alone.
The similarities have not gone unnoticed and questions have been asked about whether it amounts to creative theft by Coty-owned Kylie Cosmetics.
Lauren Chapman, senior product brand manager at Maybelline New York, alleges that the work is a direct copy of Maybelline’s previous creative work, writing on LinkedIn: “I fully support brands seeking creative inspiration from others (imitation is the greatest form of flattery after all!) however it’s a shame to see another brand (particularly a mascara product which is already very similar in packaging) create something so similar to our Maybelline concept.
“This was the perfect opportunity to create something original and exciting for their debut at Asos. I think this shows that taking a literal interpretation of something that goes viral doesn’t always work.”
Comments made by Kaja Comuncations founder Jade Kaja echo the sentiment. She said: “I think [Kylie and Asos] had the perfect opportunity to do something more innovative but bounced off what another brand has already done. Definitely disappointed but I hope that next time their team focuses on standing out and being more creative instead of basically piggybacking off of what another brand has done.“
The Drum contacted both brands for comment but they had yet to return our request at the time of writing.
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