Court is in session and, as usual, Judge Judy is in no-nonsense mode.
The famous TV magistrate, renamed Judge Beauty for e.l.f. Cosmetics‘ first national Super Bowl ad, is appalled that the defendant in front of her would spend $92 on makeup. She drops one of her well-known quips—“Beauty fades, dumb is forever”—and hands down a sentence of “$14 glowy skin.”
The plaintiff wins his argument, but doesn’t escape unscathed, with Judy declaring him “a putz.” Naturally, because the judge is always right, he can’t argue the point.
The scenario comes courtesy of e.l.f. Cosmetics with a double debut: the brand’s first national Super Bowl ad and Judy Sheindlin’s first commercial. A previous long-form teaser featured a number of familiar faces, including Suits stars Gina Torres, Rick Hoffman and Sarah Rafferty, but held back on the Sheindlin reveal until today.
Latching onto the current fascination with court dramas and other crime-related entertainment, parent company e.l.f. Beauty developed the spot with Sheindlin in mind, tossing out a Hail Mary that the legal expert would agree to participate.
“It’s true that she doesn’t have a huge appetite for these types of opportunities,” according to Brian Vaughan, partner and executive creative director of e.l.f. Beauty’s creative marketing and communications agency Shadow. “Judge Judy was always our No. 1 casting choice for this idea.”
After a care package of e.l.f. Cosmetics products for her to try, and a consultation with her granddaughter, Sheindlin signed on, telling the team that a Super Bowl commercial had been on her bucket list.
The brand and its agency could have kept the same jurisprudence theme if Sheindlin had passed, but they were determined to woo her.
