Rather than review a particular communications campaign, today’s Stoke This post focuses on what one might consider a social epidemic: Duck Face. Also known as Trout Pout, D-Lips and certainly other names of which I am not aware, for some reason many people believe that extending ones lips into a bizarre facial contortion is the most attractive pose one can strike for a camera. This is doubly true, apparently, when the one posing is holding said camera (aka, a phone).
Whether or not I think this actually is an attractive look (I don’t) is irrelevant: it is a gesture that has permeated the Millennial generation and therefore one that some brand will inevitably seize for a campaign targeted at said market. The question is, who will it be – and how will they do it?
Could it be a traditional brand trying to up their hipness? Perhaps King Arthur Flour, founded in 1790, can grab this opportunity by the lips with a social media campaign that has consumers take selfies with their best “bake face” – ie, covered in flour so that only their pout shows.
Maybe a forward-thinking brand will use it as a way to continue to “own the now.” Couldn’t you see Google setting up unmanned “fish tanks” randomly around the country, encouraging passers by to step into these photo booths and give their best trout pout? Then suddenly, without warning, the best ones would make up one or both of the Os in the Google Doodle, rotating so that people would be forced to stare at the screen all day, hoping to have their own 15 seconds of fame.
Or might it be one of the newer brands who has been transforming marketing, much like D-lips have transformed Facebook profile photos? It wouldn’t surprise me to see Dollar Shave Club embrace the face for men with a sequel to their legendary viral video. This time, the video could be called “Our Blades Are Ducking Great,” somehow showing that only clean-shaven visages make the best pout.
It’s really anybody’s guess who will do it first. Meanwhile, let’s end this post with a throwback to Ally McBeal, whose star’s trademark pout is probably behind this seemingly permanent facial phenomenon.
~ @AdvertGirl, aka Denise Blasevick, CEO of The S3 Agency
