Beauty retailer Sephora is providing an opportunity for talented black creators with their “Black Beauty is Beauty” campaign, according to Glossy.
On Wednesday, the beauty giant released an ad showcasing just how much Black culture is influencing today’s beauty industry. Additionally, the campaign will put a spotlight on Black-owned brands.
The 60-second ad runs through various scenes that show Black people engaging in beauty rituals. The opening line is, “What is beauty without Black beauty?” The ad spot features a compilation of scenes, including a beauty parlor, a drag show dressing room, and a Black mother with her daughter.
“When [society] was going through its racial reckoning [in 2020], there was a huge search increase in Black-owned brands and efforts to support Black-owned restaurants or stores, but that has dropped off,” said Abigail Jacobs, Sephora’s vice president of Integrated Marketing and Brand to Glossy.
This time around, Sephora has a goal to shed light on the trends and tools of beauty history and their connection to Black culture.
Sephora’s official Instagram page recently shared some elements of their campaign including the trendy techniques today that have roots aligned with black culture. Specifically, makeup strategies like bold cut creases and contouring and the drag community.
“These now-mainstream techniques have roots in drag/ballroom culture dating back to the 1920’s, where Black and Latinx performers used them to transform into character,” the content card said in Sephora’s Instagram stories.
“We are focused on developing, growing and launching the best brands of the future. It’s about building a pipeline for these brands to be successful in the beauty space,” said Jacobs. “We shifted the focus of our Sephora Accelerate and had eight [BIPOC] participating brands in that program this past year, and all of those brands will launch at Sephora.”
Amid last year’s push for more recognition, inclusivity and justice the popular beauty retailer committed to reserving 15% of its shelf space to Black-owned brands.
The company also reconfigured its 5-year-old Accelerate program to include more BIPOC brands. The Accelerate program offers mentorship, grants, and funding in a bootcamp-style set-up.
This campaign strategy will be across TV networks and digital channels like BET, OWN Hulu, HBO Max and YouTube; branded content and podcast advertising through Vox and New York Magazine’s The Cut; and digital ads across social media networks.
Be sure to check out the ad below:
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