Advertising Is for People / L'ORÉAL PARIS "THE FINAL COPY OF ILON SPECHT"

The problem

In 1971, during a meeting at McCann for a L'Oréal Préférence hair color campaign, the men in the room kept pitching the same old ideas — a woman sitting by a window, curtains fluttering in the breeze. Ilon Specht, a 23-year-old copywriter at the time, watched her male colleagues treat women as objects to be looked at rather than people with their own voice, and she was furious. "I'm not going to write an ad that makes women look good for men," she said — and that very anger is what gave birth to the four-word feminist manifesto: "Because I'm Worth It." It was the first advertising line in history to speak directly to women's self-worth, and it became a symbol of the women's liberation movement. More than 50 years on, it has been translated into over 50 languages and remains the line that defines the world's biggest beauty brand.

The insight

Javier Campopiano, Global CCO of McCann, put it this way: "The most powerful truths are the most personal ones — the ones that come from the gut. For Ilon, 'Because I'm Worth It' wasn't just a slogan. It was her way of expressing her fury at the ethos of the time, and her passion for the idea." Director Ben Proudfoot added, "'Because You're Worth It' has endured this long because she believed it and she lived it. It wasn't built to sell something — it was her truth." In other words, she wasn't hunting for words that would "work" as ad copy. She simply put her own anger and conviction into language — and it happened to become one of the most powerful pieces of copywriting ever written. Fifty years on, though, the meaning behind the slogan had been worn thin by time. This documentary tells the untold story behind that line, written in 1973: that it was, in fact, the first beauty ad ever spoken in a woman's own voice. It's an attempt to breathe a human being back into brand words that had long since been reduced to surface-level consumption.

The idea

"THE FINAL COPY OF ILON SPECHT" is an intimate deathbed account, filmed during the final months of Ilon Specht's life. Directed by two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, and produced jointly by Breakwater Studios, TRAVERSE32, and McCann, the 17-minute documentary looks back on her personal and professional legacy — her struggles and her triumphs — through a series of moving interviews with Ilon and her stepdaughter, Alison. Specht, close to 80 at the time of filming, holds nothing back; at one point she even tells the male cameraman, "Fuck you, too." Ali Goldstein, Brand President of L'Oréal Paris USA, said, "For us, this was never an advertisement. It's the story of an incredible woman who left behind an unbelievable tagline." The production team was given the rare freedom of a filmmaker's full trust. As Proudfoot put it, "That was the magic of it. As Ilon said herself, 'it's about human beings — not about advertising, about caring for people.'"

What happened

At the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the film won a total of five Lions: the Grand Prix for Film, Gold for Entertainment, Silver for Entertainment / PR, and Bronze for Film Craft. It was Proudfoot's first-ever Cannes Lions win — and his first Grand Prix. The director said, "Many talented people shaped this film, but this extraordinary honor belongs to one person: Ilon Specht. She changed advertising forever with her words, but she never won a Lion in her lifetime — until now." Since its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca X Festival, the film has been widely praised for its craft and cultural significance, and is currently streaming on TED, AMC+, and Prime Video. It has won Best Documentary Short at festivals including HollyShorts Film Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Festival, Chelsea Film Festival, and Lunenburg Film Festival, and has also qualified for Academy Award consideration in the Short Film category. Jury president Kate Stanners said, "Ilon moved all of us. It's a deeply timely story — one where a brand validates and justifies its own core purpose: celebrating women. The filmmaking draws you in so completely, and its humanity stays with you long after it ends."

Afterthought

Ilon Specht passed away in May 2024, at the age of 81. She never got to see this film finished — but the words she left behind at the very end of her life carry just as much weight as the four words she wrote 50 years earlier. What stayed with me most was the director's line: "This isn't about advertising. It's about caring for people." Working in advertising, it's easy to get caught up in whether something "works," whether it'll go viral, whether it'll win awards. But all Ilon did was put her own anger and conviction into words. And that, in the end, became one of the longest-running brand platforms in history, translated into 40 languages, encouraging women all over the world. In other words: speaking the truth as a human being turned out to be the most powerful creative work of all. I want to be more human too. More willing to be angry. More willing to believe in something. And I want to use words for that. This is a film that everyone in advertising should watch — and everyone outside of advertising should watch too. Because this was never really a story about advertising at all.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2025

Featured in

• Until They Return to the Same Sky, the Same Line20 years, 27 years, 27 years, 33 years, and over 50 years.

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