SheaMoisture breaks down the beauty walls
AMITYVILLE, N.Y. -- One of the beauty industry's fastest growing brands, SheaMoisture, has launched its first-ever national awareness campaign.
SheaMoisture says its new #BreakTheWalls campaign is designed to be a transformative and revolutionary multimedia effort that highlights the divisive constructs of beauty. The first phase of the campaign includes a 60-second short film (featured above), a 30-second spot, various #BreakTheWalls digital and social assets and behind-the-scenes footage that highlight everyday women and beauty vloggers raising their voices to ask one simple question: "Why is our beauty not reflected in the beauty aisle?"
"I have often said over the last 20 years that the beauty aisle is the last place in America where segregation is still legal, and separating 'beauty' from 'ethnic' has only served to further perpetuate narrow standards of what is considered beautiful in our industry and our society – which is why we began leading the efforts to break down those walls," said Richelieu Dennis, founder and CEO of Sundial Brands. "This movement is about so much more than selling shampoo, or lotion, or cosmetics. We're advancing a mission and vision to change the social dialogue about how we're looking at beauty as a society and how those archaic structures and views are debilitating to the establishment of new and more inclusive ways of viewing beauty – whether in the images we see or in the aisles that divide."
SheaMoisture's call to "break the walls" is the first-of-its-kind in the beauty industry, but has been an imperative for the brand since its inception – even taking 16 years for the brand to come to retail shelves because of Dennis' refusal to conform to traditional merchandising segmentation and his efforts to ensure that women who had been underserved by the beauty industry had ample access to an assortment of products to meet their lifestyle needs.
According to the company, creating an enhanced and more inclusive beauty experience has been a charge that SheaMoisture has led directly through engagement with its retail partners and with its diverse community of women around their needs and desired experiences – particularly wanting an experience that didn't ignore or devalue the needs of women with textured hair, whether wavy, curly, kinky or coily.
As a result, many retailers have increased efforts to enhance their assortments and merchandising to reflect more inclusion in the near-term, while working with consumers to gain insights and learnings that will help them determine the next level of changes that are ultimately needed to meet their customers' needs.
"It is also important to recognize our retail partners who – in embracing SheaMoisture, our message of inclusion and our efforts to elevate how all consumers are served in their stores – are indeed embracing the New General Market approach to beauty that is bringing down these arbitrary walls," said Dennis. "#BreaktheWalls is starting with the beauty industry, but will continue to spur dialogue and action around other societal walls that exist and that serve to divide rather than unite, and this film is only the first of more in exploring these topics."