Wider reading on Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty
Read these articles on the Sephora campaign:
The Drum: Black Beauty is Beauty by RGA
Glossy: Sephora celebrates Black beauty in new digital and TV campaign
Complete the following questions/tasks:
1) What was Sephora trying to achieve with the campaign?
1) What was Sephora trying to achieve with the campaign?
The campaign’s hero film ‘Black Beauty is Beauty’ spotlights Black stories, communities and cultural traditions behind popular beauty tools and techniques beloved by people everywhere. They were trying to achieve equality.
2) What scenes from the advert are highlighted as particularly significant in the articles?
The film shows a white person applying a cut crease, then cuts to a trio of drag queens beating their face, then to vogueing at a drag ball. The message is clear: these trends are Black and queer. From the Black mom who laid our edges as children and taught us to use thick lotions instead of that watery mess, we birthed make-up and skin care with our love and shared it with the world.
3) As well as YouTube, what TV channels and networks did the advert appear on?
The 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. Jacobs said that the success of the campaign is based on the “number of conversations” it generates across social media.
4) Why does the Refinery29 article suggest the advert 'doesn't feel performative'?
Thanks to Bradley’s vision, inclusion of history and all body types, orientations and races, Black Beauty Is Beauty doesn’t feel performative. No one feels left out. The film has more inclusion in its under-a-minute runtime than two hour features have in their whole film. Rather than dipping a toe in “diversity,” Bradley and Sephora fully submerged us and created a beautiful film that sees us. And we didn’t even have to wait until Black History Month to be acknowledged.
5) What is the 15 per cent pledge and why is it significant?
Sephora’s page has links to Black-owned brands, and Sephora pledges at least 15% of their shelves for Black-owned brands. Useful information about the challenges Black brands face is also on the page, plus a link to apply for their brand incubation, Sephora Accelerate, helping founders of colour create a successful business. The deadline is 20th September. Sephora is leading through words, actions, and money for Black beauty innovators. Precisely as it should be.
Advertising agency feature
The Black Beauty Is Beauty advertising spot was created by global creative agency R/GA. Look at their website feature on the project and answer the following questions:
1) Why did Sephora approach R/GA to develop the advert?
Signed a pledge to have 15% of their products of black independence on their shelves.
2) What was the truth that R/GA helped Sephora to share?
Yeah it gave black beauty it's credit and the popularity it deserves.
3) How did the advert 'rewrite the narrative'?
It gave the influence of the black beauty and showed the products they use and have to get to achieve the black beauty which they have obtained.
Sephora website: Black Beauty Is Beauty
Visit the Sephora website page on Black Beauty Is Beauty. Answer the following questions:
1) How does Sephora introduce the campaign?
At Sephora, we believe in championing all beauty, living with courage, and standing fearlessly together to celebrate our differences. Today’s mainstream beauty trends, tools, and products have deep roots in Black culture—and not everyone knows it. As a leading beauty retailer, we are able to—and have a responsibility to—shine a spotlight on the Black voices, creators, and brand founders whose contributions have shaped the beauty industry. We hope you’ll join us in supporting the Black beauty community.
2) What statistics are highlighted on the website?
78% of shoppers across the retail industry don’t see enough brands owned by or made for people of colour
3) What do we learn about Garrett Bradley - the director of the advert?
Garrett is an American artist and filmmaker whose work focuses on themes including race, class, and the history of film in the US. In 2020, she was the first Black woman to win best director of a documentary at Sundance for her film Time. The film was also notably nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2021 Academy Awards. This is her commercial debut.
Media language: textual analysis
Watch the advert again and answer the following questions that focus on technical and verbal codes. Use your notes from the lesson to help you here.
1) How does the advert use camerawork to communicate key messages about the brand?
It uses close up snaps shots of the products and where they come form this conveys a message which symbolises black beauty and its heritage
2) How is mise-en-scene used to create meanings about black beauty and culture?
They have make-up made from black owned business and use them in the advert which allowed to create a meaning of use and explore the culture of black beauty.
3) How is editing used to create juxtapositions and meanings in the advert?
It had a low tempo editing which allowed the audience to take in what the advert is showing the audience.
4) How are verbal codes used to create meanings in the advert - the voiceover and text on screen?
Verbal code is used as it allows the audience to take in what is being seen and what is being showed and symbolised.
5) What is the overall message of the advert?
Black beauty is amazing.
Media factsheet
Finally, go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #259: Sephora Online Advert - Black Beauty Is Beauty. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. If you need to access this from home you can find our factsheet archive here (you'll need to use your Greenford login).
1) Look at the exam hint on the first page. How does Sephora as a brand and the CSP specifically reflect contemporary social and cultural contexts?
The advert is an example of a contemporary media product and should be used to support the study of the theoretical framework (media language and media representations). It should also be used to explore the theories and debates required within the specification. It will also enable a discussion of the relevant social, cultural, historical, economic, and political contexts. Detailed study of the Sephora Black Beauty is Beauty advert should enable an understanding of how conventions of advertising are socially and culturally relative, dynamic, and can be used in a hybrid way.
2) Media theory: how are Butler, Gauntlett, bell hooks and Gilroy applied to the CSP?
Judith Butler: Gender fluidity Butler argues that gender is not strictly divided into two categories, male and female, but rather exists on a spectrum of gender identity.
David Gauntlett: Identity The Sephora advert reinforces Gauntlett’s ideas that there is now a much broader range of representations in the media, challenging traditional notions of gender identity.
Bell Hooks: Intersectionality Hooks’ notion that black women are excluded from mainstream media representations is contested in this text. In the advert, the Sephora brand aims to attract a diverse audience, and all the females featured are people of colour.
3) What aspects of media language are highlighted on page 3 of the factsheet?
Mise-en-scéne: An analysis of sets, props, lighting, and costumes Camera angles and sound: What angles are used and why, what sound is used with what effect? Semiotics: How images signify cultural meaning – what images are used and how do the audience interpret them Genre: What are the advertising codes and conventions and how have they been used in the advert? Narrative: What is the structure of the text and how does it tell a “story”?
4) How does the factsheet summarise the advert on the final page?
At the end of the advert, the message “Join Sephora in supporting and celebrating Black beauty” conveys the idea that Sephora is a brand leading the campaign for equality. This may be an effort to address past racial controversies and present Sephora as a company championing ethnic diversity and equality. The capitalisation of the letter “b” in the word “black” emphasises the notion of black power, its dominance, and importance.
5) What are the four ideologies in advertising highlighted in task 8 on the final page of the factsheet? In your opinion, do you feel the Sephora CSP advert challenges or reinforces each of these?
I believe that Sephora CSP advert reinforces this as it still advertises the make up and have the use of the products and shows images of the product on the advert.
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