If Gen Z makes you feel old, look away because Pantene’s new spokesperson is too young to even form sentences. At just one-years-old, Baby Chanco is the star of the haircare brand’s latest Japanese campaign.
Baby Chanco lies next to local TV host Sato Kondo in one of the campaign shots but stars alone in a short commercial titled 'The Hairy Tale'. As the child-star crawls around a studio smiling and gurgling illustrations reveal the story of her glossy locks.
'I’m so surprised with the reaction, but also very proud of the praise from many countries,' her mother, Kano told People magazine.
‘We feel [Chanco's] beautiful hair has strong power that makes people positively move forward,’ Ooshiaki Okura, Proctor & Gamble’s Japan Hair Care Associate Brand Director told People magazine. ‘We went straight to her mother because Chanco's personality and special character matches our image for women we want to support.’
Excuse us if we’d like to know what they mean by ‘personality’ and ‘special character’. How does a baby match the image of Pantene's ‘women’? Surely, a fully-grown adult woman would be a better match?
Little Chanco, who turned one in December, was likely recruited because of her full-bodied hair, which has won her some 330K Instagram followers. She is indeed blessed with luscious thick black hair, which looks (albeit we’re told it’s not) the product of a salon blow-dry and a great deal of hair spray. But, it does beg the question, are Pantene's products even safe for a baby as young as Chanco to use?