One of the most tactically brilliant spring-summer 2023 ad campaigns we’ve seen so far is the pairing of photographer Elizaveta Porodina [IG] and actor, singer, songwriter Dove Cameron for Carolina Herrera [IG]./ Makeup by David Koppelaar; hair by Olivier Schawalder

AOC says “brilliant” because not only are we looking at the visually-compelling photography of the uber-talented Porodina. The entire campaign executed under the creative vision of Carolina Herrera’s Creative Director Wes Gordon is accompanied by an informative interview with the creatives, published in ELLE magazine.

Not a Canned Press Release

The campaign is accompanied by a discussion of the trained clinical psychologist gone rogue photographer’s style and how Dove Cameron first “fell in love” with Wes Gordom when he asked her to be his date to the 2021 CDFAs.

The ELLE story, birthed in Paris in October 2022, is even filled with information about Elizabeth’s unique camera techniques.

For the uninitiated, Porodina is known for her ethereal and highly stylized work behind the camera. One of her signature (and highly effective) techniques requires projecting a livestream video of the subject onto a screen behind them to create contrasting perspectives on a single plane. “That was just something so genius that I’d never seen before,” Cameron says. “I found that the best approach was to not attempt to play to the camera that was capturing your face, because the more unaware you look in the backdrop, the more surreal the experience is of looking at the photos.”

The well-deserved promotion of Elizaveta Porodina, who has multiple campaigns with Carolina Herrera in her portfolio, continues.

“She’s one of my favorite photographers that I’ve ever worked with to date,” Cameron reveals. “Between every shot we were talking about everything from the queer community to philosophy. She’s one of the best people around, and she’s a true through-and-through artist.”

To AOC, the new Carolina Herrera Spring-Summer 2023 campaign represents a breakthrough strategy in content creation in a complicated magazine media landscape.

The breezy brand interview is NOT dumbed down to be bullet-point reading for Google SEO. It’s real writing that is ‘commercial light’, reflecting the strategy that AOC has used for years.

The brand payoff for Carolina Herrera is major here, as a Smart Sensuality Woman’s read. It is the perfect ‘tone of voice’ to appeal to the Carolina Herrera customer — typically an educated woman who embraces femininity and she has heart.

Herrera and Kloss, Inc.

The ELLE campaign story creates an opportunity that we would have taken anyway to connect this post to the recent Carolina Herrera Good Girl Blush Perfume campaign.

AOC has followed the business and activist career of true supermodel and Carolina Herrera collaborator Karlie Kloss from day one.

Carolina Herrera and Kode With Klossy

In particular we’ve tracked Kloss’ now major initiative Kode With Klossy two-week, summer scholarship devoted to getting girls and young women still in high school interested in STEM education and careers. About 80% of the girls and non-binary students are young people of color, and Kode With Klossy is now headquartered in Atlanta with huge support from companies like Apple.

What AOC did not know until last week is that the Carolina Herrera brand has been a major supporter of Kode With Klossy for years.

There is a rich history of interview dialogues and podcasts between Karlie Kloss and Carolina Adriana Herrera, the founder’s daughter, around the self-empowerment of women and girls.

In summation, consider the depth and range of unique appeal of Wes Gordon’s Spring-Summer 2023 Carolina Herrera Campaign.

It’s so free of word-salad contrivance because it’s full-up with original information about the campaign, written not for Google but for current and future clients and customers.

Searching back, I note having a field day writing about the June 2022 Carolina Herrera Resort 2023 collection pre-fall of Roe, but we all knew it was coming, and it did a week later.

The ending was:

Flipped Out in Florida

Traditional values crusader and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, will just lose his presidential-wannabe, round-up-all-the-perverts, goddess-damn mind when Tessa Thompson [who appeared in the Herrera resort 2023 campaign], as King of New Asgard, launches her MCU queen search!

I will now change the remaining ending with six new words ~ Anne

We ladies in our Carolina Herrera, garden-party frocks will smile politely, because looks are deceiving. In reality, we are ready to rumble with Republicans, over their control-our-bodies perversions.
And we are going to win!