Since 1971, I estimate that I have photographed about 1500 commercials. Yes, several other English DOPs and I began to use this technique, which I believe had evolved in Britain. This style was very much in demand by continental advertising agencies for TV commercials. I therefore used to do a lot of work in France, Germany and Holland. I liked to use black net diffusion on the camera especially on women's faces where I would generally put a soft backlight on the hair and soft 'wash' of light from the side.
Today there is much less use of diffusion, more towards a sharper contrastier look.
I would also use soft lights as backlights whenever the framing would allow, to highlight the hair and bring her face out from the background. I sometimes, would use an orange gel to warm up the hair. Occasionally in a very tight close-up, if the actress did not have much movement in the frame, I would use a more stylized approach. I would replace the soft light with a 1Kw Fresnel through a tracing paper frame with a horizontal slit cut into it to accent the eyes. However, although one has a favorite style, you obviously have to be flexible and adapt to the requirements of the subject.