Why Are All Skincare Ads Shot in Soft Focus? Let's Blame the Creative Director's Hangover
If you’ve ever watched a skincare ad and quietly wondered why it looks like someone smeared Vaseline on the lens, you’re not alone. There’s something slightly off about these ads. Everything glows. Skin looks like satin draped over soft-boiled eggs. And the setting? Usually an abstract void made of light beams or a bathroom so pristine it looks allergic to toothpaste. It’s a genre unto itself: Fantasy Dermatology.
The weird thing is, most of these ads are technically perfect. They’re lit beautifully, directed with military precision, and edited smoother than the product they’re selling. And yet, they all somehow feel... sterile. You can see the agency pitch in every frame. “Let’s shoot it hero-style,” someone said. “Push natural authenticity,” said someone else, before demanding toned-down makeup on the model who still looks like she could walk straight into Milan Fashion Week. Meanwhile, viewers at home are just trying to figure out if this miracle cream is going to tackle the goblin that lives under their left eye.
What happened to real creative grit? One campaign in Spain featured extreme closeups of real acne scars and landed a Cannes Lion. It worked because it didn’t pretend. It jolted viewers. Here, we seem stuck in this overly polished limbo. Somewhere, between the third round of client notes and the assistant director’s resolution to quit sugar, we lost the sense of imperfection that makes a campaign feel alive. I'm not asking for a zit festival, just a little rupture in the matrix.
Of course, there are exceptions. Some local indie brands have figured out that the secret weapon isn’t more light, it’s more truth. You feel it immediately in the casting, the colour-grading, the cheeky one-liner that made it past the legal team. And when it hits, it really hits. You blink. You watch again. And suddenly you’re not thinking about skincare at all, you’re thinking about good work. Imagine that.
The weird thing is, most of these ads are technically perfect. They’re lit beautifully, directed with military precision, and edited smoother than the product they’re selling. And yet, they all somehow feel... sterile. You can see the agency pitch in every frame. “Let’s shoot it hero-style,” someone said. “Push natural authenticity,” said someone else, before demanding toned-down makeup on the model who still looks like she could walk straight into Milan Fashion Week. Meanwhile, viewers at home are just trying to figure out if this miracle cream is going to tackle the goblin that lives under their left eye.
What happened to real creative grit? One campaign in Spain featured extreme closeups of real acne scars and landed a Cannes Lion. It worked because it didn’t pretend. It jolted viewers. Here, we seem stuck in this overly polished limbo. Somewhere, between the third round of client notes and the assistant director’s resolution to quit sugar, we lost the sense of imperfection that makes a campaign feel alive. I'm not asking for a zit festival, just a little rupture in the matrix.
Of course, there are exceptions. Some local indie brands have figured out that the secret weapon isn’t more light, it’s more truth. You feel it immediately in the casting, the colour-grading, the cheeky one-liner that made it past the legal team. And when it hits, it really hits. You blink. You watch again. And suddenly you’re not thinking about skincare at all, you’re thinking about good work. Imagine that.