My Sensitive Side | Aveeno 2023

Johnson & Johnson

We all have a sensitive side but are we all comfortable with showing it?

Being frequent collaborators with our friends at Ogilvy, we’ve had the privilege of producing some fantastic work together in the past, so we knew as soon as we saw the brief for this project it would be special.

Aveeno’s desire to challenge the stigma surrounding the word “sensitive” was at the core of the creative process for this project. To flip the lid on the concept of sensitivity implying weakness, and instead, be a banner of strength and self-empowerment, required three things.

A set of muses that would reflect strength through sensitivity in their everyday lives. The right photographer to capture these muses and express this sentiment and, an appropriate set to frame all of this in the best possible medium.

For the set, we took inspiration from the work of acclaimed photographer Irvin Penn, focussing on the world-within and the world around. Our muses took the forms of equally strong and sensitive women from different walks of life. A lawyer (Thandi Maqubela), a nurse (Olivia Tompkins), a celebrity fashion stylist (Melissa’s Wardrobe), and an Olympian (Dina Asher-Smith). Who best to capture it all? The incredible Julia Fallerton-Batten.

With the film element of this shoot featuring the wise expertise of Dr. Cristina Psomadakis, it anchors the feelings of our muses and their reflections on showing their sensitive side and provides an insight into the world around our shoot, and how we can tackle stigma surrounding the word “sensitive”, and use it as a source of empowerment in our lives by embracing not only the word, but the sensitive side to ourselves.

This shoot was everything we hoped it would be and we are so incredibly proud of the work of our team producing such a thought provoking and inspiring film for Aveeno.

Creative & Account Director – Gigi Riddle
Director/Producer – Chris Hill
Photographer – Julia Fullerton-Batten
Producer – Claudine Dignadice
DOP – Harvir Gill
Editors – Joseph Boyle, Alisson Grasso,  Yannis Tsakiridis
1st Assistant – Ramon Colsa
2nd Assistant – Elio Ruscetta
3rd Assistant – Ben Parker
Sound Engineer – Marco Baldasarre
Digital Operator – Gideon Marshall
Make Up –  Julia Laza 
Hair Stylist – Marcia  Lee
Hair Assistant – Thassio Lee
Stylist – Amy Maloney
Assistant Stylist – Martha Thorpe
Art Director – Soo Young Han
AC – Ernest Tu
Art Assistant – Hannah Fossard-Jones
Set Design/Build – Samuel Gibson
Set Design/Build – Richard Rose