Red lips, mixed messages: A PR breakdown of Louis Vuitton beauty tease
Almost three weeks ago, news broke about Louis Vuitton’s upcoming beauty line. The launch is scheduled for September, with Pat McGrath appointed as Cosmetics Creative Director. The announcement was picked up by all major fashion business media outlets. As I was reading through the coverage, I thought — this is a great example of how a brand can take control of the narrative (something LVMH struggles with, as mentioned in the section on communication strategies in the 2Jour Gazette special edition on LVMH). Although, to be fair, Louis Vuitton quite often uses this trick of engaging the audience before the official release of anything.
The cherry on top was a Financial Times Weekend article, which quoted Louis Vuitton CEO Pietro Beccari from a video call in Paris. When I read that piece, I was left with mixed feelings. So I set those thoughts aside for a while — to let them settle.