Beauty brands, media companies and misplaced “norms” have created an impossible beauty standard, leaving women under tremendous pressure to keep up. As a purpose-driven brand with a history of shifting business processes for the betterment of culture and consumers’ health, we had to address a growing health concern–starting in our beauty aisles.

That’s why we introduced the Beauty Mark initiative, a public commitment to ensure that beauty marketing is as transparent as possible. In January 2018, we debuted the Beauty Mark—a symbol to indicate that a model image hasn’t been materially, digitally altered. One year later, we officially launched this initiative, partnering with major beauty brands to shift the industry toward more realistic, healthier perceptions of beauty.

The campaign’s primary objective was to differentiate ourselves in the crowded beauty space by giving consumers a way to feel better about beauty and shopping for beauty products.

We created a simple mark that represents greater transparency throughout our beauty marketing. It denotes images that align with our commitment — to not digitally alter or change a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin, or eye color, or enhance or alter lines, wrinkles, or other individual characteristics. But this effort couldn’t just be about us. By pushing for some of the biggest beauty brands in the world to join us in this pledge, we sparked a movement calling for new, more authentic standards across the entire beauty industry.

As we expanded our beauty presence, we saw the need to address a rapidly rising health concern that was largely driven by the beauty industry itself; years of one-size-fits-all models and photoshopped imagery in marketing was putting tremendous pressure on women to achieve an impossible beauty standard, lowering their self-esteem and confidence.

Our challenge was to give consumers what they need—a way to feel better about beauty and shopping for beauty products—and to differentiate our brand in the crowded beauty space. In January 2018, we introduced the Beauty Mark initiative, a public commitment to ensure beauty marketing in our stores and online is as transparent as possible. A year later, we amplified that commitment by eliciting participation from major beauty brands and activating consumers to help shift the industry towards healthier representations of women once and for all.

Target audience was women 24–35 who are socially connected and digitally native.

We developed a shareable, integrated campaign that could transcend channel to inspire a movement. With Beauty Mark work across print, out of home, PR, experiential marketing, paid social, organic social, owned channels, and in-store events, the campaign would inspire both brands and consumers alike to take action:

- Create awareness of what the Beauty Mark promise is and what it means

- Get users to share unaltered selfies using #BeautyUnaltered, promoting a healthy self-image and giving the conversation momentum

- 3.6 billion earned impressions

- 0% Negative sentiment on social

- 104 million total #BeautyUnaltered impressions

- 15.1 million total shared content reach

- Average daily sales were up following the announcement

- 80% of consumers have a more positive impression of brand’s beauty offering after hearing about this initiative

- More than 50% of aware consumers say they will shop with us more often

- Named Mass Market Retailer of the Year by WWD Beauty Inc Awards

- Named a leading innovator in beauty by Fast Company in 2019