SK-II names Hideaki Nishijima its first male brand ambassador in Japan
P&G Prestige has put actor Hideaki Nishijima alongside long-running ambassador Haruka Ayase as the face of SK-II in Japan, a first for the brand domestically, timed to a premium kintsugi-themed skincare launch priced up to ¥68,200.
P&G Prestige Co., Ltd. has named actor Hideaki Nishijima as SK-II's first male brand ambassador in the Japanese market, the company announced on 8 September. Nishijima joins Haruka Ayase, who has served as SK-II's Japan ambassador since 2011.
The appointment is tied to the launch of LXP Kintsugi, SK-II's premium skincare line named for the Japanese craft of repairing broken ceramics with gold lacquer. The campaign, which the company frames around the idea of making time an ally rather than an adversary, opens with a limited-edition cream trial kit priced at ¥46,200 and a coffret at ¥68,200, both going on sale 20 September.
A first male ambassador for a premium skincare brand this closely associated with a single, long-running face is a product and promotion move at once: it puts a men's-adjacent name on a line positioned at the very top of the company's price ladder, at a moment when men's grooming and skincare has become one of the few growth pockets on a department-store cosmetics floor. Whether Nishijima ends up fronting the brand generally, or specifically the LXP Kintsugi tier, will decide how far this reaches beyond a single launch campaign.