When is a Celebrity Not Enough for a Cause Campaign?

Brooke Shields’ face graced this ad for Allergan’s prescription eyelash-grower called Latisse in dozens of magazines for the better part of 18 months. Allergan still lists her as a celebrity supporter on the Latisse website, even though actress Claire Danes has superseded Brooke in the recent print ads I’ve seen.

Latisse sponsors the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

I first profiled this campaign back in July 2009, when I saw it in Real Simple magazine, meaning the creative was available at least in time for that ad.

Since everything else is in the creative is basically the same except for some typography, why on earth would Allergan not use Brooke in this ad that ran in the September-October 2009 issue of Bride’s Magazine, but would use her ad in the November-December 2009 issue of Bride’s?

One obvious possibility is that Bride’s Magazine, which publishes 6-times a year, has a longer lead time than Real Simple, which publishes monthly.

But I doubt it.

It could be that Allergan is testing Brooke against the young bride to see which one pulled better. But if that were the case, you’d expect the phone number listed to be different.

I suspect however, that for soon-to-be-brides, there might be times when a sister-bride is a bigger ‘celebrity’ than Brooke Shields.

What do you think?

Happy New Year!

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