Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty CSP

1) What was Sephora trying to achieve with the campaign?

celebrating the countless Black traditions and inventions that have propagated the beauty trends broader commitment to advancing racial equity in the beauty and retail sectors. spotlights Black stories, communities and cultural traditions behind popular beauty tools and techniques

2) What scenes from the advert are highlighted as particularly significant in the articles?

Many of the trends we all participate in today, including acrylic nails, glitter, contouring and many more have roots in Black culture

3) As well as YouTube, what TV channels and networks did the advert appear on?

BET (Black entertainment television)

OWN (Opera Winfrey Network)

4) Why does the Refinery29 article suggest the advert '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 pledges at least 15% of their shelves for Black-owned brands. Useful information about the challenges Black brands face helps Sephora Accelerate, helping founders of colour create a successful business

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?

Sephora came to R/GA ready to do something about racial equity in the beauty industry. The company had already signed the 15% pledge—a commitment to dedicate at least 15% of shelf space to Black-owned brands. It had already commissioned a study on racial bias in retail and was making plans to combat bias in its own stores. Sephora was doing the work above and beyond posting a “black square,” but needed our help to talk about its commitment.

2) What was the truth that R/GA helped Sephora to share?

helped Sephora share a truth Black people have known forever: The ingenuity and influence of Black people have led to many of the beauty trends, ingredients, tools, and language we all enjoy. In short, Black Beauty Is Beauty. It was time to give credit where it’s due and encourage the beauty industry to do the same.

3) How did the advert 'rewrite the narrative'?

The work was equal parts thesis and campaign spelling out the influence of Black beauty culture on mainstream beauty. Our launch film credited Black beauty for the cut crease, the hairbrush, and many more beauty staples we all enjoy. An editorial partnership with The Cut and an SEM takeover allowed us to continue sharing that history and giving Black beauty culture the credit it deserves.

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

2) What statistics are highlighted on the website? 

3% of brands at major beuty retailers are Black owned

<1% of venture capital funding goes to black owned businesses 

78% of shoppers across the retail industry dont see enough brands owned by or made for people of colour

2 in 5 shoppers across the retail industry have personally experienced unfair treatment on the basis of their race or skin.

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?

Lots of close ups on the makeup but also medium close ups on many people putting on the makeup to communicate a sense of pride and community but also focus on the technique and beauty of the makeup itself.

2) How is mise-en-scene used to create meanings about black beauty and culture?

Costume - wide variety of clothing to represent multitude of cultures and backgrounds

Actor - Not just black women but a lot of representation from men in the black community and other communities all having fun portraying themselves how they want with the use of these techniques 

Makeup - variety of make up from many different black backgrounds and not just for black women but for everyone to use

Prop - hairbrushes products makeup

Setting - variety of settings like a home or performance dressing room that clearly depicts the idea that anyone from anywhere can enjoy the products and developments of black beauty

3) How is editing used to create juxtapositions and meanings in the advert?

There is a lot of fast paste editing with many straight cuts between many locations that can give us the idea that all the people  show within this advert are all connected by black beauty, even if they are not necessarily black or a woman themselves, and the techniques that unite all these peoples desires to create their own identity.

4) How are verbal codes used to create meanings in the advert - the voiceover and text on screen? 

The vocieover establishes a narrative for the audience to understand the importance of black beauty and recognising that it is all around us while leading us through the advert to make sure we as an audience are not confused as to the intentions behind the advert.

5) What is the overall message of the advert? 

beauty is black beauty, but it is for everyone to share in order to grow and truly find yourself as a person and develop your identity that would have otherwise been much more difficult without the cultural importance of black beauty techniques and we should all be 

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? 

It allows us to have a discussion about race and ethnicity that is sometimes overlooked in advertisement as groups of individuals are under or misrepresented in the media and links to theories like that of van zoonen stating that Black women are not represented and that the media is largely controlled by the white man.

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. Gender is a social construct in which individuals “perform” their gender. This is represented in the advert when drag queens, who are anatomically male, perform traditionally female rituals by applying make-up.

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. Gauntlett discusses the idea that identity is not fixed, and audiences can use media texts to help shape their sense of self by selecting versions of ourselves we want to “adopt”. Gauntlett says, “Identity is complicated, everyone’s got one.” The text provides the audience with an array of options for how people of colour could present their 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. They are no longer marginalised; instead, “black beauty” is celebrated and recognized for its impact on the industry.

Gilroy: Postcolonial theory

Gilroy’s Postcolonial theory, which posits racial hierarchies, is challenged in this advert. The advert does not reinforce but rather challenges hegemonic standards of beauty, such as white, slim, Eurocentric features, etc. Individuals from the BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) community, who have historically been underrepresented in beauty advertising, have been selected to feature in this advert.

3) What aspects of media language are highlighted on page 3 of the factsheet? 

Pans, medium close-up shots, split screens, mirror shots, binary opposition, close up, warm light, voice over, transition, stereotypes, montage, picture-in-picture, cultural appropriation, misrepresentation, editing.

4) How does the factsheet summarise the advert on the final page?

Overall, the advert deviates from the conventional focus on individual products or brands and instead centres on the message of inclusivity and diversity. The audience is encouraged to relate to the depicted images of people in their own homes, bedrooms, and beauty salons, implying that this positivity is associated with the Sephora brand. Analysing the Sephora advert provides an opportunity to discuss race and gender within a commercial context. The use of progressive messaging, as exemplified in this advert, regarding diversity as a marketing strategy reflects how brands are targeting contemporary consumers.

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?  

Consumerism: The preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods 

Identity: A person’s sense of self, meaning how they view themselves compared to other people

Capitalism: An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production

Gender fluidity: Denoting a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender

I think sephora reinforces all of these ideologies as consumerism is shown by sephora through promoting balck owned business capitalism is reinforced through the sale of these products to all people while it might be challenged by the 15% pledge that may or may not be profitable in the long term dependent on external factors. Sephora reinforces gender fluidity through its promotion and adverts for beauty is Black beauty. Finally sephora reinforces identity through the promotion of not just the Black community but also those who are underrepresented and allows them to portray themselves however they want.