Sabrina Carpenter is facing renewed scrutiny over the sexual undertones of her advertising after a Redken promotion featuring the singer's suggestive tagline, 'The longer you leave it in... the better it feels', resurfaced on Reddit. The haircare advertisement has prompted questions about whether Carpenter's increasingly playful, sexually-charged public image is being used to sell almost everything associated with her.
A post shared on Reddit on 30 October questioned whether the singer ever gets tired of having sex-related humour incorporated into her advertisements. The discussion focused on a Redken promotional image showing Carpenter leaning over a piano, with her long blonde hair falling across the instrument and the double-entendre tagline displayed prominently.
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Sabrina Carpenter's Redken Tagline
The phrase comes from Redken's advertising for its Acidic Bonding Concentrate Leave-In Treatment, a haircare product designed to strengthen and protect damaged hair. Unlike a rinse-out conditioner, a leave-in treatment is designed to remain in the hair after application.
Redken's Leave It In campaign debuted in October 2025, featuring Carpenter in a musical-style advertisement that combined Broadway-inspired choreography, singing bellhops, and playful references to haircare. The video begins with the singer attempting to retrieve a bottle of the treatment from a pile of luggage before transitioning into a theatrical fantasy.
During the musical sequence, the performers repeatedly sing 'Leave it in', while Carpenter makes several suggestive remarks. At one point, she says, 'I do love protection', referring to the product's heat-protection benefits. The advertisement concludes with her delivering the line, 'The longer you leave it in, the better it feels.'
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Redken's own professional website describes the treatment as the final step in its Acidic Bonding Concentrate routine and uses the Leave It In campaign to explain how the product works. The brand also features Carpenter in tutorials and promotional material demonstrating her haircare routine.
Reddit Users Disagree
The latest conversation revealed different opinions about Carpenter's commercial image. Some commenters felt the joke was harmless and argued that adult women should be allowed to participate in suggestive advertising without automatically being criticised for it.
Others questioned why a haircare advertisement needed sexual references at all. Several users said the approach had become repetitive, arguing that the same type of humour was appearing so frequently that it was losing its novelty.
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A separate strand of the conversation focused on whether Carpenter's public image was becoming too closely associated with sexual innuendo. Some users argued that she was being reduced to a particular marketing persona despite having a longer musical career and other creative abilities. Others defended her, saying there was nothing inherently wrong with an adult performer embracing suggestive humour.
The discussion also brought up comparisons with older beauty advertisements. Some commenters remembered the Herbal Essences commercials of the 1990s and early 2000s, which used exaggerated reactions and sexualised humour to promote shampoo and shower products. Others argued that the existence of similar advertising in the past did not automatically make the current approach effective or appropriate.
Redken Ruled Discriminatory in Sweden
The latest Reddit discussion has an additional context in its criticism. On 15 April 2026, Sweden's Advertising Ombudsman issued a decision concerning a sponsored Instagram advertisement featuring Carpenter and the same 'The longer you leave it in... the better it feels' wording.
The advertisement had been published by Swedish beauty retailer Lyko Sverige AB. It showed Carpenter leaning over a piano, with her hair falling across the instrument and the promotional text positioned above her. Two individuals complained that the image and wording made an unmistakable sexual reference and portrayed women in a degrading manner.
Lyko disputed the interpretation. The retailer argued that the piano was relevant because Carpenter is a musician and that her hair, rather than her body, was the focus of the advertisement. It also maintained that the singer's expression was open to interpretation.
The Advertising Ombudsman's opinion panel disagreed. It concluded that the combination of Carpenter's pose and the tagline constituted a clear sexual allusion that consumers would likely perceive as crude and demeaning towards women.
The advertisement was consequently found to violate Article 2 of the International Chamber of Commerce's advertising and marketing communications code.
