The New Bold Beauty Campaign

Pearlfisher’s Sophie Maxwell looks at an incredibly bold brand with an unbelievably forthright and functional approach.

WRITTEN BY Sophie Maxwell, Head of Insight, Pearlfisher

Beauty has seen the most phenomenal design evolution when it comes to the naturals and organics sector—with a journey from worthy and home-spun to today’s raft of luxury beauty brands imbued with natural glamour and a greater level of sophistication and impact. These “do good and look good” brands have disrupted the category and broken with the conventions of the past to now happily sit—and be desired—alongside the mainstream brands. But one new brand is set to break boundaries yet again as it not only raises the bar in the innovation and development of the look of the naturals and organics sector, but potentially has the power to radically and creatively change the perception of the wider sociological influence beauty can have.

The fashion industry has never been afraid to wear its heart —and message—on its sleeve when it comes to calls to action, particularly for ethical causes. Beauty has in turn shown a bolder and more direct face when it comes to the naming strategy of brands–such as from favorites like This Works. And while these naming strategies have reflected and promoted either the product origins, product benefit or mission statement, they have never been directly cause or campaign related. But for new brand—Stop The Water While Using Me—the product is secondary to the brand’s bigger-picture sociological and ecological role.

We are not denying that other brands—PlantLove for one— haven’t successfully extended the ecological life and reach of their brands, but Stop The Water While Using Me is the first beauty brand to use the naming as a “campaignable” slogan, and to use back-of-pack copy as its brand manifesto that calls for collaboration from its consumer rather than just a product descriptor:

“We will stop the use of non natural additives, stop wasting energy in production, stop adding unnecessary scents, stop designing with toxic colors, stop non-eco friendly parts of the package. You stop the water while using this shower gel.”

It may seem an unbelievably forthright and functional approach, but that is not to say that it is under-designed. It is strong, consistent, funky and unisex, yet follows in the wake of other cool new organic beauty brands (Absolution and Belif) with its use of a monochrome and hand-scripted or hand-sketched graphic approach.

Stop The Water While Using Me fearlessly embraces a new eco superiority that is not about glamour but goals—and with the purpose of making the consumer think, act and feel involved in a very different way. That said, the design is covetable simply because it is both a considered and blatantly conscious design. And, as we again look across to fashion with H&M’s launch of its sustainable Conscious Collection, we can see that Stop The Water While Using Me is bang on target when it comes to tapping into the zeitgeist and leading the field for a new and evolving eco beauty conscience.

Sophie Maxwell can be reached at [email protected]

More info: www.pearlfisher.com