Seth Rogen Picked A $395 Face Mask For His Mom

According to E! News, Sephora has launched "We All Sephora," a holiday campaign starring Seth Rogen, who picked out a gift list with the help of Sephora's "Beauty Advisors," including a $395 LED face mask for his mom and a marshmallow-scented perfume for his wife. The press release is live on Sephora's newsroom.

This is the holiday economy in its purest form: find the most famous man in America who has never had an opinion about a serum, give him a shopping list, and call it curation. Rogen is now the face of the store's holiday push, and his official quote, straight from the release, is "I had a lot of fun working on this campaign with Sephora. Holiday gifting can be stressful, so anything that makes it easier is a win in my book." He is reading the brief back to you. You can hear the brand strategist's ghost in the voice.

The mechanism is a good one, and it works like this. The list was assembled "with a little help from Sephora's Beauty Advisors," which means store staff picked and he nodded. Then a celebrity appears in the photos holding the products, every outlet republishes the list as "his picks" with affiliate links, the store gets the sale, the tabloid gets the ad, and his mom gets a light machine. Everyone wins except the concept of expertise, which is now a photo shoot.

The $395 mask for his mom is the whole story in one line. That is a light therapy device, not a gift. It is a subscription to his face. Somewhere his mother is holding a $395 face mask her stoner comedy actor son picked on camera, wondering if the light part is a warranty issue.

YOUR TURN: The mask gets used once and becomes a coaster on the coffee table. Tell me I'm wrong.