A MILESTONE ANNIVERSARY
50 YEARS OF
‘BECAUSE I'M WORTH IT‘
As an awkward teen, seeing the L’Oréal Paris ‘Because I’m Worth It’ commercials were somewhat of a revelation, writes Hannah Tan-Gillies. These beautiful, powerful and confident women dominated my television screen, showing me that not only could I be beautiful like them, but that I deserve beauty simply because I was worth it. For many young girls, beauty is often a means by others to quantify our worth, a culture that extends even in womanhood. For centuries, a woman’s beauty was seen as her primary value, and the beauty industry marketed beauty products for women to be seen or noticed by their peers.
Fifty years ago, that all changed – because for the first time, L’Oréal Paris shifted the lens and put women on the spotlight.
‘Because I’m Worth It’ was the first slogan in the world to underline the value of self-worth and truly understand that women want to be beautiful for themselves and not for others. L’Oréal Paris told women that they were beautiful, that they we were worth it , and that changed everything.
Created in 1971 by Ilon Specht, a then relatively-unknown 23 year-old female copywriter at McCann agency, ‘Because I’m Worth It’ grew to become of the beauty industry’s most famous campaigns. Over the years, ‘Because I’m Worth It’ has become a rallying cry for women across all ages and backgrounds to embrace their self-worth. The campaign has since been translated into 40 languages, reflecting the brand’s global expansion and inclusive notions of beauty.
This year, ‘Because I’m Worth It’ is celebrating its milestone 50th anniversary and its message is truer than ever.
To celebrate the occasion, L’Oréal Paris launched an inspiring new campaign called ‘Lessons of Worth’.
The project brings together a diverse roster of confident and powerful spokespeople, in the hopes that it can inspire a new generation of women to take ownership of their worth, like L’Oréal Paris once did for me.
