Despite their ‘Drops of Youth’ being one of The Body Shop’s best selling ranges, selling a bottle every 20 seconds around the world, the brand want to drop harmful branding that promotes ‘anti-aging’. 

Laura Keane, Global Brand Development Director at The Body Shop recently spoke to The Drum about leading this change and the reasons behind it. 

Naturally, the aim of skincare brands is to make their consumers feel better about themselves, enhancing that by using their products. But that’s not how it’s always received. 

Whilst there have been some concerns over the way skincare brands have a negative impact on their customers’ wellbeing due to unrealistic claims and just making women feel negative about themselves, The Body Shop want to be different and they have begun tackling this. ‘Self Love’ is a campaign run by The Body Shop which began in 2021 to spearhead this change. 

“This was really a catalyst to encourage us to look at our portfolio and see where we could improve the creative and the language – not just the images we put out, but what our products do and what they are named.” Said Laura Keane. 

As part the change, The Body Shop highlighted their commitment to sustainability; introducing sustainable packaging. 

“we’ve increased its naturality so it’s now 90% from natural origins, it’s more sustainable from a packaging perspective and we’ve doubled the quantities of edelweiss, which is a key ingredient,” says Keane. 

“The fact is, we’re changing it from a purpose perspective ... so the cherry on top is it’s all vegan certified, which is the next step in our journey to animal welfare.” 

The Body Shop’s campaign took a different direction from those of the past, choosing to visibility showcase the new ingredient in their new advertisement. The marketing ad itself, which is focused on building resilience, features women sharing their own stories of overcoming adversity. The advert aimed to corollate an interesting link shared between the word “resiliency” and the women’s stories respectively. 

“We wanted to make the link between having resilience in your skin and having resilience in your life as empowering qualities.” Said Keane. 

Their recent campaign seems to be the first in its portfolio, according to Laura Keane. “The goal is always to stay true to our purpose and [encourage] men and women throughout their lifecycle to find products at The Body Shop.”