Most of the Japanese businesspeople are being restricted from expressing their own individuality and forced to fit into a certain mold just because they are a businessperson. This is a serious problem when considering respecting individual identity. It also is an obstacle preventing their right to enjoy their own lives being their true selves. We aimed to break this stereotype in order to create a society where everyone, regardless of occupation, position, or gender, has the right to choose and enjoy the pleasure of wearing their hair the way they want, and where everyone can feel confident about themselves. Specifically, we aimed to help Japanese people realize that many of them are unconsciously trapped by the stereotype of business people’s hair and believing that they should prioritize to fit into the image based on their social labels over being their true selves. Moreover, we aimed to make people understand the joy and richness that lies beyond being liberated from these stereotypes.

We focused on the company ID card photos as the most symbolic portrayal of the gap between our businessperson identity and our true self. IDs are something that identifies you, but the person you see on it is bound by the unconscious bias of typical business norms. ” I don’t like my ID photo.” This is something we sometimes hear in conversation at the office. Many businesspeople feel uncomfortable with their ID photos that are far from their true selves. These photos are even often used as a profile picture in business chats, emails, or online meetings, always identifying and representing “you.” By changing and liberating this ID photo from the stereotype, we allowed businesspeople to recognize that they had been blindly bound to the idea of how businesspeople should look, and by doing so, we believed that we could create a trigger to change society.

To maximize the news value of this project, we chose to take advantage of the time of year when businesspeople receive the most attention in Japan. The target date was April 3rd, when all new graduates start off their careers and many companies hold their welcoming ceremonies. Students who have been enjoying being their “true selves" will be faced with being a “businessperson” as a new employee, and how the companies welcome them also come into the spotlight on that day. We considered that delivering a message of liberation from the stereotype of businesspeople at this particular day would best attract people's attention. The main target was working women in their 20s to 40s. With the project tagline, "IDentify yourself, your true self,” we aimed to spread the idea to society through business media and signage in the business districts where many of these targeted women work.

April 3rd - When many companies hold their welcoming ceremonies and people's interest in businesspeople is at its highest, we placed newspaper ads on the front and the back of a single page with the visuals of the before and after of the actual scaled ID cards, highlighting the transformation of the ID photo. In addition, we took over the business districts with a series of short videos of ID cards. The ID photos start moving and changing their hair styles to express their true selves. Also, we asked for opinions on business people’s hair on social media, creating a hashtag #RethinkBusinesspersonHairstyle. Furthermore, Unilever actually renewed their employees’ ID cards including board members and new employees. We did not let this project end up as an idea proposal to society, but we took it further by actually implementing it as tangible action.

・Covered by 3 TV programs, including Japan's national broadcast.

・Covered by 80+ web media.

・Over 7,000 organic tweets were posted with #RethinkBusinesspersonHairstyle and the topic was hotly debated.

・The follower size of LUX’s brand social media account grew to 130% in just a week.

・86% of Unilever’s employees who actually renewed their IDs said that they now feel proud of their working selves.

-We proved that people’s mind and confidence can be changed through a single card.