Originally published by Leila Janah on LinkedIn: Your Attention, Please.
I just published an ad that almost got banned by Facebook:
But it’s for a good cause.
At least 60% of what you put on your face goes into your bloodstream. When I found out that known carcinogens, synthetic fragrance, and chemical emulsifiers are normal ingredients in most skincare products, I was shocked.
And yet, natural products seem less effective.
In response to my own concerns about effective, safe skincare, I launched a new product, Pure Nilotica Melt, last fall, and we just got picked up by Sephora. The Melt contains just one ingredient, Certified Organic Nilotica Reserve, a rare skin butter that’s wild-harvested and cold-pressed into a luxurious balm. Ours is also fair-trade certified, creating jobs for women in war-torn Northern Uganda.
But it’s tough to market a good-for-you, good-for-the-world product in an industry saturated with vice.
We tried different approaches. Last fall, when I launched the product on QVC (surreal - more on that in another post), we made delicious Nilotica truffles to send to beauty editors to show how the product is safe enough to eat.
That got us thinking, why not run a campaign on this, showing people actually eating the product?
We decided to go one step further, and today we began a digital campaign inspired by the purity of Nilotica: LICK ME. It’s a little risqué, but we figured it was worth turning heads for a cause we care about.
Social impact brands need to be much more provocative. Why not make impact sexy, less Tom's of Maine and more Tom Ford? Let’s ditch the goody-two-shoes aesthetic and get people to stop scrolling and give a damn.
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