PARIS – It’s not every day one glimpses into how Gisele Bündchen interfaces with a brand suitor. But that’s the premise of a funny, witty campaign from Garnier for which (spoiler alert) she has become the first global brand ambassador.

In the 4-minute-15-second film, called “The Signature,” three Garnier executives fly over to meet Bündchen and find themselves bouncing on exercise balls.

“Wellness is very important to me – and so is everything I sign,” she says, pointing to a folder chockablock with contracts. Larry, her lawyer, is handed the file.

“You want me to read it – again?” he asks, then does. Out loud. Exercises ensue both inside and out. Larry’s a sport, even in a cold-plunge bath. They all go to a Garnier lab, and Larry gets the product testing manual (to read aloud). Bündchen is shown the new Fructis Diamond Sleek Shine-Coat Soothing Spray, billed to give hair 100 hours of frizz-free sleek.

They surf and sit by a campfire, while Larry finishes the contract, which becomes a done deal.

This first institutional brand campaign carries Garnier’s amplified message of wellness beauty. “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Gisele to the Garnier family,” said Marc Baland, brand president of Garnier International. “She’s a global beauty icon and is very authentic.”

Bündchen is also an environmental activist and a wellness advocate. “It was a perfect match,” Baland said. “We share the same vision that beauty is made to look good and to feel good. With her, we don’t have to compromise between nature and tech, between looking good and feeling good, and between performance and the planet. She embodies this holistic, healthy beauty lifestyle – what we call on our side ‘wellness beauty.’”

He explained that by signing on Bündchen, the idea is to make wellness beauty accessible to everyone. People – and especially the rising generation – no longer want to choose between effective products, clean and natural formulas, a pleasurable experience and eco-friendly brands.

Garnier’s message chimes with Bündchen’s. “It’s a natural fit, because she shares the same values,” Baland said, adding that alongside authenticity they include simplicity, mindfulness, positivity, performance and effortless healthy beauty. “She’s very committed. She’s very selective.”

Bündchen is a hands-on partner, he continued. “She’s very passionate and had a lot of questions for us,” Baland said. Bündchen had never signed with a L’Oréal brand before and wanted to be sure she was aligned with everything, from product quality to sustainability.

The Garnier campaign’s idea was inspired by real conversations the group’s executives had with her. “She was like a fact-checker,” Baland said. Bündchen wanted to see all of L’Oréal’s commitments.

She will be involved on many fronts, including on Garnier’s High-Tech Nature platform, which embodies the brand’s new vision of scientific innovation to deliver new levels of performance, safety and sensorial experience.

As part of that, Bündchen will be the face of the new Diamond Sleek spray early this year. To bolster Garnier’s sustainability drive, Bündchen is to help encourage consumers’ more eco-friendly habits. “She will be raising the awareness of Garnier’s environmental initiative,” Baland said. “It’s a full ecosystem with Gisele.”

He called this a turning point for Garnier, which is among L’Oréal’s billion-euro brands and its third-largest overall.

“My vision is to ignite Garnier’s DNA,” Baland said. “To make the brand more competitive and more desirable. That’s the starting point. So we have to identify who we are and why Garnier has existed for more than 120 years.”

He defines it as “High-Tech Nature beauty made to look good and to feel good.” (High-Tech Nature has been trademarked.)

Baland explained Garnier “creates a synergy of the best of nature and science together – there is no other brand at scale.”

He said Garnier uses the most powerful natural ingredients in high-tech formulas across all its products. An example is vitamin C powered by biotechnology. The renewable source it uses is corn, which reduces by 1,000 times the environmental footprint versus the same amount of vitamin C extracted from an orange.

Garnier’s Vitamin C Serum is the world’s number-one ranking serum.

Baland said the brand’s products are accessible to everyone. “We do that across the globe,” Baland said, calling Garnier “the most local of the global brands.”

Safety is key, and so Garnier is the largest worldwide brand approved by Cruelty Free International, the organization fighting to abolish animal testing everywhere. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of Garnier’s products are vegan, and each goes through more than 100 tests and controls to ensure the highest standards of safety and quality, Baland said.

The brand is currently launching in Europe its next-generation skin care moisturizer, called Vitamin C Dry Touch Cream. “This product is an amazing success in Brazil,” Baland said. That’s where the digital-native Dry Touch Cream began and has doubled Garnier’s market share there.

“It’s a new generation of texture,” the executive continued, describing it as nine times lighter than a classic moisturizer.

Also in product, Garnier Vitamin C Wonder Tint – a next-generation BB cream – is launching this year. It’s at the intersection of skin care and makeup, giving instant skin tone correction and a long-term care effect thanks to its SPF 50-plus, Baland said.

Garnier, a mass-market brand, operates across 64 countries and reaches 450 million consumers yearly.

 “We do not believe – and that’s at the core of the brand – that people have to make a choice between quality and affordability,” Baland said.

Emerging markets have been a huge driving force for Garnier over the last few years, where it’s posted double-digit gains, and is a priority in terms of future development. Garnier is the top-placed beauty brand in Mexico and Indonesia, and registers rapid growth in Brazil, South Africa and India.

“In these countries, the brand resonates very well,” Baland said, adding it’s due in part to Garnier’s positive nature. “It’s a young brand, a lively brand,” among other attributes, he explained.

Garnier is also unisex by design, which chimes with younger generations. Currently, 40 percent of the brand’s users are men.

While Europe remains an important market for Garnier, the United States is its No. 1 country. There is a desire for acceleration there.

Garnier innovations come from every geography, as it counts laboratories on each continent. “We have the agility and the consumer relevancy of a local brand,” Baland said. “We can capture local trends, consumer needs at the speed of light.”

Then if a product is successful, it can be expended worldwide.

Facial skin care, hair care and hair color make up 90 percent of the brand’s business. “For skin care, my main strategic battle is to champion skin-tone management,” Baland said, adding that is in line with the young generation’s expectations.

At the intersection of styling and hair care is Garnier’s Fructis, the unisex brand that also offers looks. Fructis Sleek & Shine is the first sleek franchise worldwide. “The conquest of Fructis is endless,” Baland said.

Fructis operates in hair color with Olia, the number-one hair color in France. “It’s booming across the world,” he said.

Consumers, according to Baland, want to understand their beauty routine, which Garnier has simplified for them. “So when they see the vitamin C franchise, from cleansing to care to SPF [with] instant gratification products, this is a full regimen,” he said. “The same on hair care, from shampoo to treatment.”

With hybrid products, Garnier gives people a toolbox to answer the consumer needs, Baland added.

“It’s an exciting time, because the brand is fully equipped from the product part, which is made to look good and feel good, which is really the testimony of Gisele, as well,” he said. “This brand has huge potential.”