Positive Beauty vision to help end discrimination, narrow beauty ideals

Unilever has launched a Positive Beauty strategy as it tackles the challenge of narrow beauty ideals and work towards helping to end discrimination and advocate for a more inclusive vision of beauty. Photo: File

Unilever has launched a Positive Beauty strategy as it tackles the challenge of narrow beauty ideals and work towards helping to end discrimination and advocate for a more inclusive vision of beauty. Photo: File

Published Mar 11, 2021

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Philippa Larkin

JOHANNESBURG - UNILEVER, the London-based multinational behind Dove soap and other bath and beauty products such as TRESemmé haircare products, has launched a Positive Beauty strategy as it tackles the challenge of narrow beauty ideals and work towards helping to end discrimination and advocate for a more inclusive vision of beauty.

The move will see Unilever eliminate the word “normal” from all of its beauty and personal care brands’ packaging and advertising.

Unilever also said it would not digitally alter a person’s body shape, size, proportion of skin colour in its brand advertising, and would increase the number of advertisements portraying people from diverse groups who were under-represented.

Unilever brands came under fire last year and were called out for racism.

In September last year, it came under attack for a TRESemmé haircare advert labelling black women's hair as dry, damaged, frizzy and dull —featured on the Clicks group social media platforms — which led to protests outside Clicks stores across the country.

Earlier in the year Unilever agreed to rename a skin-lightening cream in its Fair & Lovely range, which was criticised for promoting negative stereotypes around dark skin tones.

Unilever in a statement today said it would adopt a clearer mission surrounding inclusive beauty standards across all its beauty and personal care brands’ packaging and advertising globally.

Sunny Jain, Beauty & Personal Care president, said: “With one billion people using our beauty and personal care products every day, and even more seeing our advertising, our brands have the power to make a real difference to people’s lives. As part of this, we are committed to tackling harmful norms and stereotypes and shaping a broader, far more inclusive definition of beauty.

“We know that removing ‘normal’ from our products and packaging will not fix the problem alone, but it is an important step forward. It’s just one of a number of actions we are taking as part of our Positive Beauty vision, which aims not only to do less harm, but more good for both people and the planet.”

Unilever said the Positive Beauty vision would help to drive transformation in how products were designed and formulated so that they not only delivered a superior product experience, but also tapped into consumer trends.

The company said the decision came after global research into people’s experiences of the beauty industry, which revealed that many groups were left feeling inadequate or marginalised by impossible standards, which people experienced on a daily basis.

It said the 10 000-person study, which was commissioned by Unilever, was conducted across nine countries, including in South Africa, where it found that despite the majority of people in the country describing the industry as “innovative” (70 percent) and “creative” (60 percent); four in 10 people also described it as “only for some” (39 percent).

“In South Africa, making products that cater to all people is recognised as one of the most pressing challenges that the beauty and personal care industry should address,” it said

The study found that more than two in three people in South Africa agreed that the beauty and personal care industry made certain people feel excluded. The industry also contributed to the spread of narrow beauty ideals and seven in 10 thought that the industry was pressuring people into thinking they needed to look a certain way.

Other societal and cultural norms included the need to be both accomplished professionally and physically (66 percent), but also to be pure and feminine (60 percent).

The majority of people in South Africa agreed that the industry still had some way to go in representing people of various body types (77 percent), while one in two people thought that labels on beauty products contributed to narrow beauty ideals.

Seven in 10 people thought that using non-inclusive beauty product packaging and in advertising had a negative impact on people.

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