Because You’re Worth It with L’Oreal Paris USA President Ali Goldstein

Published Oct 3, 2024, 7:01 AM

After starting her path there as an intern in 2001, Ali Goldstein is now the president of L'Oreal Paris USA, one of the world’s most recognizable brands. She joins the show to dig into the surprising origin and powerful legacy of the iconic tagline “Because I’m Worth It,” and its enduring impact on women's empowerment. She also touches on L'Oreal’s Women of Worth program, which honors extraordinary women making a difference in their communities. Plus, join Simone and Danielle in celebrating the new class of the Hello Sunshine Collective, and their exciting journey ahead!

Hello Sunshine. Hey, best sies.

Today on the bright Side, we're joined by the President of Loreel Paris USA, Ali Goldstein. She's here to tell us how the company's tagline, because You're Worth It, stands the test of time and how Lareel Paris continues to uplift women through their Women of Worth program.

It's Thursday, October third. I'm Simone Boyce, I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to share women's stories, to laugh, learn and brighten your day.

Okay, before we get started with today's show, we've got some big news.

Big news.

We are so excited to announce a brand new class of the Hello Sunshine Collective. Now, if you're not familiar with the collective, it's Hello Sunshine's talent incubator that offers a customized mentorship experience to entrepreneurs and change makers. Danielle and I we are officially alums. Now. Danielle, can you believe it?

I know I can't believe it's already here too, But it's been such a fruitful experience that I'm really excited to welcome the second class. Me too.

I can't wait to meet them all too at Shinaway. We get to see them very soon.

Yeah, it's like a little sisterhood.

Yes, well, we are so excited to announce this latest class. So without further ado, drum roll please, First up, we have Arian Belazier, Ellen Bennett, Molly Carlson, Goby Dalkin, call me On Hamilton, Michelle Sue, April Lockhart, Hannah o' flynn, Reagan Reward, and Ali Truetto. Congratulations to the new class of the Collective and welcome to the club, y'all.

These are some bright Side veterans too. We've had some of these women on our show. It's so exciting to welcome new women to the sisterhood. Hello, Sunshine is really like a family. So welcome to the Collective and I can't wait to see and hear what this year brings all of you. We're also so excited that Loriel Paris is a sponsor of this year's Collective. They do amazing work with their Women of Worth program, and together as part of this partnership, they will continue to uplift and inspire a new generation of role models. We'll chat with Loriel's president, Ali Goldstein, in just a few minutes, and in preparing for this interview, we had a chance to look at the history of their very famous because You're worth It campaign and all of the work and thought that goes into the women of Worth program. Today. I remember that slogan growing up. I remember watching Loreel Paris commercials with like sparkles in my eyes.

I mean, because You're worth it is iconic. And what was so cool about getting ready for this conversation is learning about the origin story of that phrase. And I can't wait for everyone to hear it because, y'all, it is such a good story.

Well, we're excited to live out that phrase and meet the incredible collective at Shinaway this weekend. If you haven't gotten your tickets, run do not walk to Hellosunshine dot com.

Well, our guest today knows Lorel Paris just about better than anyone out there because she started at the company as an intern and worked all the way up the ladder to become the president of the company today. I mean that is no small feat at any company, but especially considering that Lorel Paris is the number one beauty brand in the world.

It's so major. Loriel Paris has been around for more than one hundred years since nineteen oh nine. How many companies can say that. But it was really the nineteen seventies that marked a turning point for Loreel Paris, because that's when the company adopted the world renowned tagline because I'm Worth It, highlighting the importance of self esteem in an advertisement.

Then, nineteen years ago, Loreel Paris created their Women of Work Program. It's an annual nationwide search for extraordinary nonprofit leaders who are contributing to their commit unities. And through that program, ten women are named Women of Worth honorees and receive twenty five thousand dollars to support their cause, as well as mentorship from the Loreal Paris Network and a national platform. It's an incredible way to recognize people who are doing important work. Plus it really shows Loril Paris's commitment to empowering women.

I'm always so curious about huge companies and brands that live their values. Loriel Paris is one of those. So I'm excited to chat with the president, Ali Goldstein. She's here with us now. Ali, Welcome to the bright Side.

Hi, how are you?

Thank you so much for having me Danielleancemow and I'm really excited to be here.

We're excited to have you. We're both big Lorel Paris fans. And today Loriel Paris is the biggest beauty brand in the world, but back in nineteen seventy three, it was actually the challenger in the American hair dye market, and then that all changed with this groundbreaking TV commercial.

I use the most expensive hair color in the world, Preference by Laurel. It's not that I care about money, It's that I care about my hair. It's not just the color I expect gray color. What's worth more to me is the way my hair feels smooth and silky, but with body it feels gooding at to my neck. Actually, I don't mind spending more for Laorel because I'm worth it.

Can you tell us the story behind that iconic tagline.

Amazing, right, It's a fantastic story. So I think we have to imagine back to the early nineteen seventies. The advertising industry was very male dominated, so most of the executives were men, but even in the advertising women themselves were more.

Treated, almost as props. Despite the fact that the.

Products were for women, they were there as just an element of the commercial, but not at the core, which is so fascinating to think that's only fifty something years ago. Loriel was looking to create a new commercial for our Preference hair color brand, which today still exists on the market and is a top brand for our consumers. There was a young woman, a young copywriter, a woman named Elon Speck, who was twenty three at the time, and she worked for McCann, who, by the way, is still our ad agency all these years later, and so they wrote a script for Preference and Elon specs. She was participating in writing the script. She was I think the only woman in the room. But she didn't like how it was written, and at the time it was a male voiceover, and she essentially said, no, no, no, unacceptable. This is not what it's about. And she rewrote the script and that's how we developed that final line, because I'm worth it. And the commercial was filmed two different ways, one with a husband and wife, so a male referencing his wife and he was voiceover, and then it was filled in the second time with the woman alone speaking to camera, and so it was really from her point of view saying I deserve this color because I'm worth it. And who could imagine that this tagline, which at the time was just the ending of a commercial, would be the global tagline of the number one beauty brand in the world. It has certainly evolved to have a much deeper meaning than even what it was intended or what it was thought to be at the very beginning.

It's really very powerful story.

It's powerful hearing it from you, particularly because I just watched so much of the Paris Fashion Weed content come out on TikTok from Loriel Paris, and there were so many celebrities there who had heartfelt things to say about what that tagline meant to them and how they really felt it at the show.

Yeah, the Daffy Lay is what you've just seen, which is a real fashion show in Paris during Paris Fashion Week. But it's really that show, just to give some context, is not about let's say, the fashion and the designers, but it's really a story of women's empowerment and it's our one of our showcases of how we try to bring women's empowerment and the worth sort of positioning to life.

The show features all of our.

Spokeswomen, many influencers, many friends, of the brand, and it's really about showcasing diversity in all its form. So we have women, men, young, old, every color, every size, every age, and it's all about confidence and being worth it and showing that everyone is worth it. And that message has resonated with all of our spokeswomen, all of our partners, and they are proud to walk that show in a very different way than they might be when they walk a fashion runway, a traditional fashion show. It's very exciting.

I love this story behind the phrase I'm worth it so much. I really hope that Elon Speck has her own plaque or awards something inside the halls of McCann because her story just it illustrates the power of one individual, just one person, to create lasting change. Like so much has changed since the early seventies, and yet because I'm worth It is still on the tip of all of our tongues. Why has because I'm worth It been such an enduring slogan and how do you think it resonates with today's women differently than it did in the seventies.

Yeah, So, before I answer your question, I just it's very interesting because we had the same sentiment that this woman needed to be recognized and in fact, this past year, Lauriel Paris and McCann worked with a production company named tra Verse thirty two to produce a short format documentary highlighting the life of Elon Speckt and her creation of Because You're Worth It. And it was just a debut recently at Tribeca Film Festival and we are working on a full launch with a streaming partner, so more to come on that. We had wanted to bring the story to life, and we located her.

She's still alive, very ill.

And dying of cancer, and in fact we were able to interview her before she passed away, so her her legacy will live on.

Is an unbelievable story.

So I just wanted to mention that because it is coming in the in the future months and very exciting as a tribute to her and.

To be able to give her flowers before she passes exactly exactly beautiful.

Yeah, yes, So how has it lived on and what has it meant? There's so much in that question. It truly stood the test of time. And when you think back to when the tagline was created in the seventies, you know that was the era of the equal rights movement. For women a time when there weren't very many women in top executive roles in government and senior positions, and women were fighting for their rights. So it was a moment of time where that sentiment was really needed and it was a very bold statement for the time. And now we fast forward fifty years later, and there has been so much progress. We see women in leadership positions in government, we have a woman running for president, but clearly there's still so much more to be done, and so we're not done yet with this tagline, it truly has become almost a call to action, and so it has evolved as generations have modernized, and so it spans this sort of intergenerational field as grandmothers to now mothers to their daughters and sisters have sort of felt the impact of it, and it really has become so much around confidence and empowerment, this mantra of you can do anything, and you, as a woman or even a man, have the right to choose what you want to do and be who you are and be confident in that and don't worry about those who are going to object to what you want to do. And so it's this amazing powerful statement that is It's really about an effort to build confidence and an effort allow people to just be.

Who they want to be and feel good about it.

And that's very much how it's evolved and become today.

I think generations of women have grown up knowing the phrase because I'm worth it, my mom did, I did. It's become this cultural touchstone. And you started with Loriel Paris after getting your MBA in your twenties. Now you're the president. You just mentioned how people like women were not really executives at that time, How you are leading the charge. How has that phrase inspired you throughout your career.

Just to give you a little bit of my background as a person, I've had great role models.

In my life.

My mom worked, my grandmother worked, so I always grew up with women role models who were empowered and were able to balance work and personal and do well at both of them. I also had the opportunity when I was in college to be a White House intern, and I actually at the time worked for Hillary Clinton when she was First Lady, which was an amazing experience and also was an amazing just to be able to observe a woman as first Lady.

But during that time.

She was a pretty active first lady, and she was helping to on the side, I guess maybe impact policy in a way that was appropriate for her. And so when I came to Laoreel and I started on the Loreal Paris brand more than twenty years ago, I was really honored to be working on this brand that embodied because you're worth it.

And it hit home.

Very very deeply to my heart because I really believed in this and I've always wanted to champion women. And I came to Loreel and there have been many women role models here as well. Not as many back then, but certainly enough. It is the beauty industry, so for sure there's more women, but it wasn't always the case. Over my twenty years, it's truly evolved. We have many, many more women in leadership roles. It has truly inspired me to be persistent, fight for what I believe in, not to sit back and let things happen, have a voice at the table, and have my confidence as a leader in the organization. And so I'm today very proud to be wearing the hat of President of Lorel Paris. It is a great honor. I take it extremely seriously. One I run a business, but two, I carry the torch of this tagline, which is extremely powerful.

We need to take a short break, but we'll be write back with Ali Goldstein. Stay with us and we're back Ali. On the bright side, we love to celebrate the breath of women and just reinforce this idea that women are not monolithic and we have so much to learn from each other's experiences. And you mentioned this role of carrying the torch, so don't want to talk to you about that now. How does Lorel Paris continue to foster the sense of self worth and empowerment through its products and initiatives today?

The worth sentiment and this idea of because I'm worth it, it's ingrained in the deepest part of everything we do. So it really only starts with the products. And I would say from a product standpoint, it means we offer consumers women the best quality, the most efficient formulas, beautiful packages, great sensorial experience, really great value.

Beauty can be that armor because I'm worth it.

First and foremost is because these are great products and we stand behind them and we don't make any sacrifices. So that's first and foremost, But it goes much broader and much deeper than that is very much a part of who we work with and the choice of spokeswomen and what they believe in.

It is fantastic.

We do interviews with our spokeswomen and for them, oftentimes we hear the first time a spokeswoman does an ad campaign and says I'm worth it. Even for very famous people, it's a goosebump emotional moment, and that means it's much deeper than just the makeup or the shampoo or skincare, so it's really meaningful for them, and we choose very selectively, and then we also focus on many campaigns that are outside of our products and really about supporting women, supporting.

Worth Globally, we have a program called.

Stand Up, which is about fighting against street harassment, and we've partnered with a nonprofit to provide training programs of how consumers can help fight against street harassment and it's called the five D's and anyone can go online and learn more about that. We've also done some content and partnership with our swopespeople in terms of highlighting their failures because in fact, you learn so much when you fail, and the program is called the They're Worth It resume which highlights all the failures in their life. So it's not a resume of all your successes, but it's yours. It's a resume of your failures. Oh, I love that, which is really fascinating that even famous people have learned and been empowered and their confidence has been built from the times they didn't succeed and how they've overcome it. And then, of course in the US, we have our Women of Worth program, which is now in its nineteenth year, and this is a program where we recognize real women who are solving real problems in their communities and.

It's something we're super proud of.

As I said, we're in our nineteenth year, so we've been committed for a very long time, and it's really about identifying women across the United States who work on many different causes but are giving back to their local communities, and we recognize them and support them in a broad way.

Loriiel Paris has been known for its strong, intelligent, passionate spokeswomen over the years. Kate Winslet, Andy McDowell, Eva Longoria, Asia, Naomi King just to name a few, but some of the most powerful stories and voices came out of Loriel's Women of Work program, which you just mentioned. Can you tell us why you think this program is so important.

Yes, yes, we can partner with the best and most impactful celebrities, but in the end, it's real people that are making a huge difference in the world, and we felt that we really needed to.

Recognize those women.

So this is a grassroots program and it really highlights women that are contributing to our world in the most positive way.

They dem straight the epitome.

Of courage resistance, and so we particularly look for organizations that aren't necessarily well funded but really need that support and when we can help them have an impact. For the Women of Work Program, we help them in three different ways. So first of all, each year we recognize ten women. We wanted to find causes that were relevant to what was happening at the time, and also recognizing that people are facing many different issues. Recognizing ten women also allows us to recognize ten causes, and we give each woman twenty five thousand dollars towards her cause. And on top of that, we have mentoring opportunities and we give them access to all of the support and the network we have at lorel In terms of media partners, legal advice, fundraising advice, like all of the things that we can do internally as a big corporation, we give them access to and of course we use our platform to bring awareness to this organizations because in the end, they need awareness, they need funding to continue to do what they do.

I'm curious how exactly you select the Women of Worth honorees because you see such a wide range of causes represented each year. What's the criteria.

There's not a strict criteria.

We really look for women who are just having a great impact and need our partnership.

But we really look for diversity.

That's one of the main criteria of do they have a cause that needs our help? Are we addressing the needs that we're seeing and hearing across the United States. So we look for a variety of backgrounds, We look for different experiences, We even look for geographic diversity. With ten women, we can impact communities all across the United States. We receive literally thousands of applications each year. We partner with an organization called Points of Light, who helps us vet all of the causes and then we narrow down and and we actually invite the employees who work on the Loreal Paris brand to help us review all of the applications so they even can impact these women. And frankly, we've never had to track people down to get help. Everyone's raising their hands. It's very inspiring and actually very motivating to read through the applications and so that helps us narrow down to a final group. And then we have sort of our final evaluation panel, and so it's myself and some of the other leadership team, representation from some of our partners, Asia Naomi King, one of our spokeswomen, has been involved for the last few years to help us and it's actually a very inspiring morning where we read through profiles on all these sort of finalists and then we have a discussion and it's very hard to choose actually because there are so many fantastic causes and every year we say the same thing, Oh my god, this is the best group, and every year it is a great group.

You have an incredible group of women in this He is Women of Worth honorees. I mean, I was particularly moved by Meimuna Hussein Katan. She's the CEO and founder of the Tia Foundation, which is a nonprofit formed to support the lives of refugees, and I know, Danielle, you were really touched by doctor Tanya Stafford's work as the founder of It's Going to Be Okay, which is a nonprofit dedicated to victims of human trafficking.

How about for you, Alli.

Are there any recipients this year that really touched your heart in a special way.

Yeah, there's always a few that we all, each of us has a connection to.

You know.

I had an experienced this year where one of my close family members was diagnosed with breast cancer. She's fine, she had double mass ectomy and she's okay. But so this year there's a woman named Sherry Mathis who leads the Mammogram Poster Girls, So that personally has impacted me. Her organization helps to fund and encourage early screening for disadvantaged communities because I think we we all know early detection is the best way to prevent and save women's lives, and so being able to reach out to communities that don't get the medical care or can't afford the medical care that they need is really powerful. So that connected with me this year really because of what was happening in my personal life. Another one that I found super powerful was control all elite as the organization.

Laura Pohulis she helps women.

Escape from domestic violence and she faced this herself, and Sherry Mathis faced breast cancer herself. For so many of these women, they've faced all these issues personally, and that was really the impetus for them to create these organizations to help other women overcome these challenges.

Lots of very powerful stories. They're all really amazing.

Allie. What do you think resonates with you most about the Women of Worth program?

I think it's, you know, it punctuates the point of because I'm worth it. Worth can be about beauty, but it goes much much deeper. It's so much more about confidence and feeling good about yourself and giving everyone the opportunity to be who they want to be. And so Women of Worth is our way of helping women who are helping other women to do just that, and in the most straw way possible. So it's finding women who desperately need the help, and they need money, they need access, and we bring a light to what they do.

And so that's what's so powerful.

Allie.

We talked about your career a little bit. I mean, you're a true loreal Paris success story. You went all the way from intern to president of Lorial Paris. It takes a special person and a special company to have that trajectory. How do you live out the idea of because I'm worth it in your own day to day? And how do you hope your daughter will live it out too?

Yeah, it's funny. I get asked kind of that question a lot. To be in one company from the bottom to the top more than twenty years. I generally focus on kind of three key themes. The first is find your role models, find your sponsors, your mentors, whatever you want to call them.

But build those relationships. That was what was done.

That's what I did, and there were women who were trailblazers who really helped me.

And I wouldn't be.

In this position had it not been for all those women before me, who even at Lorel had to break a little bit of that glass ceiling to make it possible. That's one piece of advice is lean on others a little bit and find people when you have those tough days that you can talk to and breathe through it. The second thing I would say is don't be afraid to take risks, don't be afraid to ask and tell people what you want.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes and.

Fail, because all of those bumps in the road are learning out for two unities, and I think there's so many challenges out there, and one could.

Play it safe, and I would say just go for it.

And that's where the because you're worth it is very powerful. Believe in yourself and tell yourself you're worth it, even when you're scared and not sure. And then the third thing is, you know, I live it, breathe it very deeply, which is pay it forward. So I really enjoy coaching the people that work underneath me and developing talent. Sometimes I get more joy out of that than even the sales numbers and the market shares. It's really about developing the next leaders of the organization, and so that's really about listening and having respect and letting people flourish. And so my job is to make that happen and allow them the space to do that. That's what I tell my daughter every single day.

When Simona and I started this show in March, we did I think maybe our third episode was about products we love, and we both basically agreed that you would have to pry the voluminous mescara out of our cold dead hands. That is our product. I've been using it since I was in seventh grade, So I have to ask you, having been at Loriel for twenty years, you know the products better than anybody. Yes, what's your go to Holy Grail Lorel paris product one that you cannot live without?

So I have a few. It's hard to narrow down.

So I'm going to give you kudos because voluminous is one of my favorites too. And I try every new mescra and we have a lot of great ones, but I always go back to voluminous. It's really a classic. It's like perfectly buildable, but not over the top. It glides on easily like It's definitely a keeper for me. I also use one of our infallible concealers, particularly as I'm getting older, right, dark circles like.

Can't live without it. I love it. Applicator, really creamy formula.

I love a creamy concealer.

Yeah.

On skincare, we have an amazing triple power moisturizer. We have a fragrance free version that I love. It's good for sensitive skin and it's all in one wrinkles, firmness, brightness, everything with great ingredients like hyaluronic acid and vitamin C and retinol. So that's a really great staple. But those are some of my favorites. I have lots of them though, Elnet hairspray, Hyleron, plump shampoo. My whole household uses all Lorel pars. Bea better, be better, Yes, yes, And there's always product in my house. Everyone comes over and I'm like, try this new mess, Garrett, tell me what you think.

Thank you so much for joining us on the great Thank you so much.

This has been really fun.

Ali Goldstein is the president of Lorel Paris USA.

That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, we're popping off with TV hosts, founder of Rapublica skin and beauty and lifestyle influencer and mi Amiga Julisa Bermudez.

Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok Oh, and feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and at Danielle Robe.

Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

See you tomorrow, folks, keep looking on the bright side.

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