Agency: Space Doctors - UK.

Client: Procter&Gamble.

Context: A global semiotic project supported P&G’s innovation and R&D teams in identifying new conceptual directions and expressive languages for their cosmetic brands.

Tension: The cosmetics category is highly saturated with recurring aesthetic and narrative codes, making it difficult for brands to differentiate in a meaningful way.

Innovation often risks remaining incremental, while communication tends to reproduce already established representations of beauty.

Insight: The analysis revealed that beauty is structured through a limited set of cultural codes, repeatedly used across brands and categories.

These codes define not only how products are presented, but also what is considered desirable, aspirational and legitimate within the category.

Implication: This opened the possibility to explore alternative cultural territories and develop new languages capable of redefining how beauty could be expressed.

By moving beyond dominant codes, brands could position themselves in more distinctive and forward-looking ways.

Impact: The insights contributed to the development of new conceptual directions and supported a new positioning for P&G brands in cosmetics, including Dolce & Gabbana.