In 2019 Function of Beauty embarked on their first ever out-of-home brand awareness campaign on the NY subway. Growing up in NYC, it was always a dream to build a subway campaign so I was very excited to create something fresh and different from what I’d seen before. Given my passion for memes and Function of Beauty’s internet-native positioning, it only made sense that we arrived at a concept rich enough to be carried by what looks like a series of Twitter screenshots. We wanted the campaign to be eye-catching, informative, relevant, and whimsical. Taking a format that is typically only found on the internet and recontextualizing it to live IRL felt refreshing and attention-grabbing—it was something that lived cross-functionally from social media platforms to subway platforms. The campaign had an out-of-home print component as well as a digital component that lived on both paid and organic social channels.

When it came to messaging and copywriting, we sought to keep it relevant to the context—New York, specifically the subway—so we paralleled the education around customization with the individuality, lifestyles, and personalities of New Yorkers. Each execution aimed to speak to an individual who, perhaps, had never felt seen by a bottle of shampoo before.