Sephora black is beauty

• cosmetics retailer owned by the giant multi national LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton launched a new national advertising campaign across America in 2021.
• the campaigns hero film 'Black Beauty is Beauty' spotlights Black stories, communities, and cultural traditions behind popular beauty tools and techniques beloved by people everywhere.
• aimed at celebrating black traditions and inventions that have propagated many modern and popular mainstream traditionally white beauty trends.
• the advertising campaign is part of the retailer's stated commitment to advancing racial equity in the beauty and retail sectors. - the new national advertising campaign highlights the significant impact of black creators and brands to take credit for the tools, ingredients, and products that they helped pioneer- and, by extension, launch successful beauty businesses.
• The beauty retailer approached digital agency R/GA to launch a campaign that would highlight the Black community's 2022 innovation by Design Awards.
• The campaign is the winner in the marketing category of Fast Company's 2022 innovation by Design Awards.
• Positive social impact- Sephora have committed to increasing their positive social impact by empowering women in their company, their stated aim is to build a more inclusive workforce and improve the retail experience for not only African American women but also it's diverse consumers.
• Increased rev plus profit- this progressive retail philosophy will if successful result in an increase in revenue and profits for the company by tapping into previously untaped and overlooked areas of the beauty industry.
• Gauntlett suggested media representations could help construct a meaningful story of self-identity, so a positive representation of Black Beauty and culture could empower the target audience and promote self confidence.
• The campaign aims to celebrate the contributions made by Black individuals throughout history to the beauty industry. It seeks to challenge traditional ideas about what constitutes beauty and promote self-expression through makeup and personal style.
• Sephoras "Black Is Beauty" Campaign was launched on June 19th (Juneteenth) which marks the end of slavery in America
• the split screen creates binary opposition between old and new
• use of slang/jargon such as 'cut creases' and 'beat faces' is targeting a black audience.
• the use of the phrase 'icons' combined with footage of black people, creates image of them being important and legendary throughout history
• the media often fails to represent black hair or the issues styling it
• the ad mentions baby hairs, laid edges etc, creating a realistic representation of black hair care
• creates positive happy representations of different black communities
• mixing bowls in kitchens create the idea that many black products are DIY created
• reflects context that black people ended up creating their own products as companies were not catering to them- image of DIY mixing bowls in kitchens
• draws further attention to products and tools created by minority communities
• in the ad the 'styles we love to post' may reflect context of cultural appropriation, where white people have taken credit for ideas originally created by people of colour
• the cut from the white person doing cut crease eyeshadow to the drag queens doing it, reinforces the idea that the trend was originally from black drag culture
• diverse inclusivity of age, gender, body shape, skin tone etc
• the split screens help to emphasise the number of people involved with and affected by this issue
• inclusion of drag queens as well as males putting on makeup avoids gender stereotyping around who in society can wear makeup or not
• ad may reflect acceptance of makeup for men being too, and the rise of male beauty vloggers
• 'Join sephora'- suggests Sephora as a brand is leading the campaign to celebrate black beauty
• real locations create a sense of familiarity and comfort
• mentions Oprah Winfrey's channel and black entertainment and television in America
• the beauty retailer approached digital agency R/GA to launch a campaign that would highlight the Black community's contribution to the beauty industry. This campaign is the winner in the marketing category of Fast Company's 2022 innovation by design awards
• words suggest Sephora is leading the campaign to celebrate black beauty
• Capital letters of the word 'BLACK' gives it importance and dominance, suggests that being black is powerful
• unconventionally, the advert does not focus on a specific product or show the Sephora stores etc
• real locations of home area, salons and other regular places create a sense of familiarity and comfort.
• they found that when searching for 'Black Beauty' on google, there was more images of horses than black people and beauty products
• the company of sephora could be seen to be playing on rise in political correctness by starting the campaign to make themselves look inclusive and diverse
• sephora encouraged the hashtag of #blackbeauty on social media to help with the lack of search engine results when typing in 'black beauty', eg when it came up with horses instead
• sephora worked with the digital marketing company R/GA using clever modern marketing techniques such as trending black beauty hashtags to achieve maximum impact,
• this campaign is the winner in the marketing campaign of the Fast Company's 2022 innovation by design awards
• the advertising campaign is part of the retailer's stated commitment to advancing racial equity in the beauty and retail sectors, it is influenced by the social and cultural contexts of America in 2021 with the BLM movement and the racial issues that came up during the first Trump Presidency.