Back when he hosted the 2025 Saturday Night Live premier in October, Bad Bunny told Americans they had four months to learn Spanish ahead of his Super Bowl Halftime Show performance on Feb. 8.
E.l.f. took the challenge head-on. The makeup and beauty brand revealed today that it will return to the Big Game for the third consecutive year, this time with a streaming-only buy on Peacock.
The two-minute ad is a telenovela-style film starring comedian and actress Melissa McCarthy, who learns to roll her Rs in order to prepare for “the world’s biggest reggaeton show.”
Realizing in a panic that she doesn’t speak Spanish, McCarthy crashes her car and wakes up in a telenovela titled “Melísa,” in which her character is being cared for by actor and TV doctor Nicholas Gonzalez.
McCarthy struggles to learn Spanish, saying nonsensical, horribly accented sentences like “yo soy un baño” (I am a bathroom), until Gonzalez trains her with the help of e.l.f’s Glow Revolver Lip Oil. “You need juicy lips so you can ‘rrrrr’ those Rs,” he says.
All the while McCarthy is taunted by a jealous doctor, played by iconic telenovela villain Itatí Cantoral, until she’s ready for the big show.
The ad uses genuine soap opera and telenovela filming techniques, shot in 30 frames per second with hyper-saturated color.
In addition to the ad, e.l.f. is partnering with Duolingo to offer all members of its loyalty program a two-week free super subscription to the platform to learn Spanish.
“The goal is to be funny and celebrate the Latin community,” e.l.f. chief marketing officer Kory Marchisotto told ADWEEK.
Porqué Telenovelas?
This is e.l.f.’s fourth telenovela campaign.
The strategy began in 2023, when the brand released a single with Latin music star Manuel Turizo called “ojos. labios. cara.” The track debuted on the artist’s YouTube channel and iHeartRadio, as well as the brand’s YouTube and TikTok accounts.
E.l.f. followed up with “Descubre e.l.f.ecto,” a telenovela miniseries launched in Mexico last March, which will premier a second season later in February.
