Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty CSP

Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty CSP

Work through the following tasks to make sure you're an expert on the Sephora CSP and particularly the wider social and cultural contexts.

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

Refinery29: Sephora’s ‘Black Beauty Is Beauty’ Short Film Celebrates Black Innovation

Complete the following questions/tasks:

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

A new campaign celebrating the countless Black traditions and inventions that have propagated the beauty trends we all know and love – from stylized baby hairs and cut-crease eyeshadow to glitter and shea butter-based skincare. The campaign is part of the retailer’s broader commitment to advancing racial equity in the beauty and retail sectors. Sephora's advertisement highlights how Black culture has had a significant impact on the beauty business, bringing attention to the racial bias in society that has frequently kept good portrayals of Black beauty out of the mainstream narrative.

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

• The camera pans over Black women waiting under dryers as the narrator poses the question, “What is beauty without Black beauty?”
• 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.

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

The campaign was across TV channels and networks like the TV spot campaign called “It Comes Naturally”, 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. 

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 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?

R/GA 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. Today’s mainstream beauty trends, tools, and products have deep roots in Black culture—and not everyone knows it.

2) What statistics are highlighted on the website? 

• 3% of brands at major beauty retailers are Black owned
• 1% of ventured capital funding goes to black owned businesses
• 78% of shoppers across retail industry don't see enough brand owned by or made for people of colour
• 2 in 5 shoppers across the retail industry have personally experienced unfair treatment on the bases of their race or skin 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?

Numerous close-ups of the makeup as well as medium-length shots of numerous individuals doing makeup are used to convey a feeling of pride and friendship while simultaneously highlighting the skill and elegance of the makeup itself.

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

Hairbrushes, cosmetics, and other items that are typical of beauty advertising are among the props used in the campaign to demonstrate the mise en scene. The voice over might also be seen to correspond with the images to convey a storyline that is developing or perhaps revealing to the viewer how black culture is the source of all mainstream beauty. Another convention is to makeup, since each person depicted has a heavily applied makeup look that reflects Sephora's brand and offerings.

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

Split screen and animated diagram editing, which involves continuous camera movement in addition to editing, aid in the creation of meaning in the advertisement. This might be used to give the advertisement meaning since it reflects the TikTok generation's attention span and social media sharing expectations.

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

In order to keep the audience focused and effectively convey the messages they are attempting to convey, the voiceovers and spoken codes that describe the pictures that appear on screen do this. This arrangement aims to prevent misunderstandings or uncertainty that could exacerbate their previous scandal. In order to demonstrate their shift and the cause they hope to advance, the campaign's strong and colourful typography may effectively convey who they are and what they hope to accomplish.

5) What is the overall message of the advert? 

The major takeaway is that black beauty culture is the source of global popular culture and mainstream beauty standards. Sephora wishes to spread this word, reclaim what was rightfully hers, and honour black beauty.

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? 

Sephora as a brand specifically reflects contemporary social and cultural contexts as we need to understand this advert in the wider context of the BLM protest and so we can also engage and enable a discussion of how this relates back to the relevant social, cultural, historical and political contexts. 

2) Media theory: how are Butler, Gauntlett, bell hooks and Gilroy applied to the CSP?

• Butler suggest that 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.
• 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. The text provides the audience with an array of options for how people of colour could present their identity.
• 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 recognised for its impact on the industry.
• 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?

• 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.
• 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.