THE BACKSTORY: An iconic name ready for a new chapter
Head & Shoulders has strong brand awareness in the UK. Whilst the brand was familiar, it saw a growth opportunity with Gen Z men, a generation increasingly disengaged from traditional advertising and sceptical of anything that feels scripted or overly polished.
To build genuine affinity with this new audience, Head & Shoulders needed to move beyond legacy media, expand their talent roster, and show up on the platforms where this audience genuinely spends time.
The challenge was a compelling one: how do you take a legendary brand and an iconic spokesperson like Claudia Winkleman, and make them genuinely resonate with a generation that values humour, irony, and cultural credibility above everything else?
THE HERO: Head & Shoulders and Claudia Winkleman
Head & Shoulders and Claudia Winkleman, two British institutions with enormous cultural weight.
Head & Shoulders:
Household staple
Trusted by millions
Claudia Winkleman:
The nation’s favourite
Iconic fringe
Effortless charm
Together, a powerful pairing with real potential to cross into new territory, if the story was right.
THE VILLAIN: A lack of relevance
A generation that has grown up skipping ads and seeing straight through brands. Gen Z men don't just ignore conventional marketing; they actively distrust it.
Overly polished, scripted content is the fastest way to lose them. And with partners and parents also influencing purchasing decisions, Head & Shoulders needed to win over a whole ecosystem of sceptics at once, on platforms they'd chosen, in formats they actually enjoy, without ever looking like it was trying too hard.
THE AUDIENCE: A generation who see right through you
Gen Z males: digitally native, entertainment-driven, and deeply allergic to anything that feels like traditional advertising. This was not an extension of Head & Shoulders' existing strategy but a fundamental shift, requiring new platforms, new creative formats, and new talent that felt genuinely credible to this generation.
They are driven by humour, cultural relevance, and the kind of content that earns its place in a feed rather than interrupting it. Alongside them, the partners and parents who influence everyday grooming purchases, an ecosystem of decision-makers that any successful campaign needed to bring along for the ride.
THE SCRIPT: A thumb-stopping collab
We leant into humour through a cultural collision nobody saw coming. Claudia Winkleman, beacon of great hair and long-standing Head & Shoulders ambassador, transplanted from sequins and studio lights into wellies and muddy fields, hanging out with pigs, cows, and sheep alongside Farmer Will from Love Island, a face of modern aspirational masculinity.
The contrast was sharp. The comedy was natural. And by letting the humour play out organically on TikTok rather than forcing a polished brand moment, the campaign did something rare, it made people genuinely laugh, and then genuinely share it.
Claudia's image was refreshed for a younger audience without losing any of the warmth that made her a national treasure in the first place. Head & Shoulders stopped feeling like a brand interrupting the scroll and started feeling like part of the entertainment itself, self-aware, culturally plugged in, and worth paying attention to.
BOX OFFICE RESULTS
8.6 million views
130,000 likes
1,700 saves
4,000+ shares
Beyond the platform metrics, the campaign broke into the mainstream, picked up by the Daily Mail and talked about across the internet for an entire week, proving the idea travelled far beyond paid media. Head & Shoulders moved from awareness to conversation, successfully repositioning the brand as relevant, shareable, and genuinely desirable for a new generation. Not just a brand they recognised. A brand they actually wanted to talk about.
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