Jennifer Aniston's hilarious haircare ad is a masterclass in celebrity branding

Jennifer Aniston has created an ad for her haircare range that plays with parody, using character design, industry tropes and outdated graphics to hilarious effect. When celebrities create branding, they're often in danger of taking themselves too seriously, making it tough for consumers and fans to accept their crossover into a new space. But Jennifer's brand approach here is bang on, especially for someone who has built her own brand through her own hair, starring in haircare commercials for other brands throughout her career and, of course, creating "The Rachel".

This advert, posted on LolaVie's Instagram, is tongue-in-cheek and centres on Jennifer's marketing team showing her an ad for approval that features "Hair People" - characters made out of hair dancing around to a techno beat. Add in some '90s Powerpoint-style graphics and whispers of "hair, hair, hair" and you've got a complete package that fans are enjoying in the comments. See it below, then look at the best adverts ever made.

This approach also provides an opportunity for the script to explain exactly why the ad wouldn't work by explaining the benefits of Jennifer's hair care range, and allows her to assert that she created it herself.

"Well, I created LolaVie as a haircare brand that really works, it's backed by science and we don't say that at all," she explains. She follows that up with one-liners like "there were no mouths, that's what's so creepy".

It's a great vehicle for selling the product, whilst being engaging and funny – and crucially allows Jennifer to be presented as in control of the brand in a light-hearted way. As a piece of branding it nails the brief, and will catch attention for LolaVie at the same time. Of course, it helps that the CEO is an actor and has brilliant comic timing – it flies in the face of most celeb beauty branding, which is often in danger of being unrelatable and serious in tone. It's also a nice touch that the 'Hair People' have Jennifer Aniston-like hair, adding to the strength of the brand.

The positive comments have flooded in on Instagram adding to the overall success of the ad. "jen’s face during the commercial is priceless, we love this CEO ❤️," one user says. "I didn’t expect this hahahaha😍😂," says another.

In tone, it's a world away from other celebrity brand ventures, like Beyoncé's whiskey ads last year, which were uber-serious in tone, sleek and very design-y. But the brief is often very different – more aspirational in intent, whereas Jennifer's personal brand is all about relatability and the haircare range accessible and practical.

For more beauty ads that are truly out there, see the wildest perfume ads ever.