Is ‘Elle’ the New Blueprint for Product Placement?

In “Elle,” Prime Video’s new “Legally Blonde” prequel series, ads are everywhere — even if viewers might not realise it.

When protagonist Elle Woods sits poolside flipping through an issue of Cosmopolitan in the pilot, there’s a glimpse of a 1990s-style ad for a pink version of Dove’s beauty bar, with copy that nodded to the character’s Valley Girl speak: “It’s like... the best for your skin!” Two episodes later, she’s washing her face with the very same product. And during the ad breaks, there’s a commercial starring actress Lexi Minetree, who plays Woods, highlighting the beauty bar once again. What’s more, intrigued shoppers can snap up their own pink beauty bar with just a few clicks of their remote, which adds the product to their Amazon cart.

It’s the latest example of how brands and streamers are more closely integrating talent, content and product. Fashion and beauty brands, eager to capitalise on cultural moments, are doing everything from issuing capsule collections inspired by hit shows like “The White Lotus” to placing their wares in series beloved by their target demographic, like Coach’s team-up with “The Summer I Turned Pretty” last year.

“Elle” takes that formula a step further, connecting the dots between product placement that fits within the plot, commercials that incorporate the cast and shoppable features that make it easier for customers to act.

“It’s a closed loop. It’s not just about the content, it’s the infrastructure around it,” said Ellie Bamford, chief strategy officer for North America at creative agency VML. “There is this real frictionless or contextual commerce that’s going on with the show that is at a level I’ve not seen before.”

While shoppable TV is not a new phenomenon, with streaming services like Peacock offering QR codes that viewers can scan to shop items that appear on screen, customers are increasingly expecting a more seamless experience, said Bamford. Even Amazon long relied on a “Shop the Show” portal in its app, which forced viewers to scroll on a second screen, until 2024. It’s ramped up those features this year, giving users the additional option to add items to their Amazon cart directly from their TV on shows like “Elle.”

But as more brands realise that shoppable ads — which consumers are bombarded with on social media — aren’t enough, the “Elle” strategy is likely to spread. The most effective campaigns are built around a show’s IP and come to life through multiple channels, rather focusing on “traditional product integration,” according to Kathryn Fernandez, head of Dove masterbrand and skin cleansing for the US market.

It requires more of a lift, but also ends with a greater payoff, too, said Bamford.

“Collaborations with any premium IP are never cheap,” she added. “If you’re going to do it, it cannot be a tack-on [that is] just noise around the show. You need to be the content.”

The Self-Referential Playbook

The most effective “Elle” brand moments are threaded through ad breaks, social media, and of course, the show itself, creating several occasions for recall among viewers.

L’Oréal Paris, the first season’s official makeup sponsor, for example, embedded its products within episodes, with Elle seen using 1990s favourites like its Voluminous mascara, Colour Riche lipstick and True Match foundation. During ad breaks, the brand ran spots featuring Minetree in a 1995 take on a Gen Z-friendly “get ready with me” video using those same products — which viewers could directly add to their Amazon carts while watching.

“We find that we have the most success when we have this cohesive universe in our campaigns to work around,” said Ellen Jaskiewicz, vice president of marketing for L’Oréal Paris. “We set out to be very intentional about the way that our brand message, and also our products were integrated through each step of the consumer journey.”

Brands also tapped well-known references from “Legally Blonde” to make their integration feel more organic. In one of its ads, Dove included the line “it’s pink, and scented,” recalling a line from the original film when Woods hands her Harvard professor her pink, scented resume. Similarly, alongside in-show placements and traditional ads, L’Oréal recruited influencers to create content referencing the film, doing the “bend and snap,” and popping back up with a full face of L’Oréal makeup.

“[We’re] making sure that we are infusing ourselves into the conversation that’s happening around ‘Legally Blonde’ and the ‘Elle’ universe, but showing up in an authentic way for our brands, and creating ways for [customers] to interact with our products,” said Jaskiewicz.

The show’s premiere was also preceded by a sold-out, in-person “Elle World” event in Manhattan, where fans were able to watch a bend and snap drag show and primp for old-school yearbook photos using L’Oréal products.

Even brands that didn’t place their products in the show found ways to weave their ads into its universe. Victoria’s Secret’s Pink brand, for instance, capitalised on the fact that its brand name doubles as Woods’ signature colour, running ads during the show and releasing an “Elle”-inspired collection with pieces like Woods’ famous sequined bikini from the original film and T-shirts with iconic one-liners such as “What, like it’s hard?” Womenswear label L’Agence, which released an all-pink capsule collection in partnership with Amazon-owned Shopbop, aligned with the femininity and sense of empowerment that are central to both Woods’ character and the brand, said L’Agence’s fashion director, Tara Rudes Dann, with items like a tweed pink jacket and matching skirt.

Multigenerational Appeal

With its 1990s setting and iconic reference material, “Elle” is ripe for nostalgia — both for those who lived through the era, and teen viewers who romanticise it.

For brands like Dove and L’Oréal, which were popular in that time, it was an opportunity to “bridge both the Legally Blonde enthusiasts who have known and grown up with Elle … but also [has] this ability through her in this coming of age story to introduce Elle Woods and L’Oréal Paris to a younger consumer,” said Jaskiewicz.

The feel-good factor of nostalgia and a positive, fun show also make this type of series a particularly salient moment for marketers looking to tap viewers’ “heightened dopamine state,” said Bamford.

“It is such a beloved [IP] and beloved character in Elle, that I think [brands] have the ability to sort of bypass people’s normal defenses and get in, and people don’t even really realise they’re being sold to, because they have such positive emotional connection to the content,” she said.