US Ad of the Day: eBay rejects fake followers & fake news in favor of real luxury goods
The online marketplace is telling millennials and gen Zers to ditch the fakeness and cash in on realness with eBay's Authenticity Guarantee.
eBay is shining a spotlight on its flourishing luxury resale category – and the expert authenticators behind the products whose job it is to ensure that customers “never get faked over.”
Dubbed ‘Everyone Deserves Real’, the initiative aims to position the e-commerce platform as the go-to source for luxury goods for millennial and gen Z consumers.
The campaign, headlined by a high-energy 30-second anthem film, plays on the theme of “fakeness” and the prevalence of inauthenticity in contemporary culture. Viewers see a vacation-inspired Instagram post revealed to be a hoax and the anxiety of social media notifications growing while a user sleeps. It juxtaposes this phenomenon against eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee, which backs select brand products with a stamp of approval from expert luxury authenticators. The ad hammers home the message that there’s nothing fake about buying luxury on eBay.
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“Trust is the heartbeat of eBay, and ‘Everyone Deserves Real’ serves as both a rallying cry and a promise to our community of buyers and sellers,” said Emily O’Hara, eBay’s head of brand, in a statement. “With this campaign, we’re underscoring how confidence on the marketplace anchors our business.”
The campaign, which was developed in conjunction with New York-based JOAN Creative with film production by Stink Films, builds on eBay’s recent brand activation in New York City’s Diamond District, where it opened up a luxury exchange. Held in mid-November, the exchange sought to tap into the growing value of authenticated luxury goods by allowing shoppers to use pre-owned luxury products as currency, trading handbags, watches, apparel and jewelry from brands including Gucci, Rolex and Van Cleef & Arpels.
“It’s never been easier for luxury enthusiasts to refine their collections in a trusted environment, and we wanted to create an IRL experience that reflects what’s happening on eBay every day,” said Tirath Kamdar, general manager of luxury at eBay, in a statement at the time.
eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee was expanded in 2020 to include jewelry – a move that helped to further cement the e-commerce site’s reputability in the flourishing luxury resale market. The authentication service now includes categories like sneakers, handbags, watches and fine jewelry.
Since then, the brand has poured resources into promoting luxury shopping on the platform. In August of 2021, eBay launched a playful campaign called ‘A is for Authenticity’, which took consumers on an alphabetic tour of the many reasons to buy luxury handbags on eBay.
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