Positive Beauty, which sets out several progressive commitments and actions for Unilever’s beauty and personal care brands, including Dove and Lifebuoy, will champion a new era of beauty which does more good, not just less harm, for people and the planet.
“Over the years Dove has seen many partnerships that have assisted the brand in bringing the narrative around ‘Positive Beauty’ - through various campaigns that have celebrated all types of beauty - to the South African consumer,” says Keegan Alicks, Beauty and Personal Care Category Director, Southern Africa. “Lifebuoy is the original brand with Purpose and thus perfectly positioned to support this movement of Positive Beauty and driving awareness in South Africa. One of the pillars of Positive Beauty is through the movement’s People Positive approach and the aim to improve health and wellbeing for all.
“Lifebuoy has been working together with the Department of Basic Education for a number of years to instil proper handwashing practices. To date, it has reached over three million Grade 1 learners through the National Schools Hygiene and Sanitation Programme. In 2020, the programme was expanded from 15 000 schools to 23 000 schools and an annual reach of over 12 million learners, from Grade R to Matric.”
Using Unilever’s world class innovation and technology, Positive Beauty will also help to drive a transformation in how products are designed and formulated so that they not only deliver a superior product experience, but also tap into consumer trends.
Sunny Jain, President Beauty & Personal Care, 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.
“With more consumers than ever rewarding brands which take action on the social and environmental issues they care about, we believe that Positive Beauty will make us a stronger, and more successful business.”
In addition to removing the word ‘normal’, Unilever will not digitally alter a person’s body shape, size, proportion of skin colour in its brand advertising, and will increase the number of advertisements portraying people from diverse groups who are under-represented.