Olay is heading for the final frontier with its all-female Super Bowl cast, sending Canadian YouTube creator Lilly Singh and U.S. actress Busy Philipps into space alongside retired NASA astronaut Nicole Stott.
Taraji P. Henson, whose last brush with space came as a star of the film Hidden Figures, is Olay’s “mission controller,” with Katie Couric providing news coverage. The crew is assembled for a 15-second teaser spot breaking today, beginning their quest by seeking the keys to the rocket.
The 30-second spot from Badger & Winters, which will run in the first quarter, is inspired by last year’s first all-female spacewalk. It's tethered to a Twitter campaign, also breaking today, that raises money to support girls getting into science and technology. Olay will donate $1 to Girls Who Code each time someone tags @OlaySkin and uses the #MakeSpaceforWomen hashtag between Jan. 15 and Feb. 3.
“We recognize that many industries have yet to reach gender parity, which is why we’re using our Super Bowl ad to feature fearless women who have been trailblazers in their own industries as a way to inspire people everywhere to get involved and support Operation #MakeSpaceForWomen,” Olay Associate Brand Director Eric Rose said in a statement.
Most of Olay's Super Bowl crew has previously worked on Olay or Procter & Gamble Co. brands. Philipps and Singh were part of last year’s “Sun Care is Self Care Campaign” for Olay, and Couric produced last year’s Timelines documentary series on cultural pressures young women face around the world, backed by P&G prestige sibling SK-II.
Female-owned Badger & Winters is getting its most prominent assignment yet from P&G after having created a #WeSeeEqual video for the corporate brand in 2017 and the first #FaceAnything campaign for Olay in 2018. Singh was part of that first Badger & Winters campaign for Olay, too.
“With ‘Make Space for Women,’ we loved combining a bit of word play with the very serious world of science and technology—a world, by the way, that continues to exclude women in large numbers,” Chief Creative Officer Madonna Badger said, adding that besides the all-female cast she’s working with “many talented women behind the camera.”