The Body Shop is the OG ethical, vegan, fair-everything, activist brand. They did it way before it was trendy. Activist innovators since the 1970s. Invented Body Butter (and the entire category) in 1992. It became their best-selling product ever. Three decades later they found themselves very disconnected from young people – the audience they needed to reach.

Despite having a deep connection with The Body Shop’s values, young people weren’t familiar with the brand. So the Body Butter product relaunch had to relaunch The Body Shop into the public’s consciousness.

The goal of this campaign was to make The Body Shop’s activism relevant to a new generation while reinvigorating sales of their marquee product.

“Spread Love.” A celebration of inclusivity and body positivity that elevated TikTok’s black woman dance creators who had their credit stolen. We had Body Butter share the spotlight with them across all media. Collaborated with them as choreographers for a Body Butter music video. Shared their stories on The Body Shop’s social channels. Made them the faces of taking care of others and spreading love to get them the recognition they rightly deserve.

The Body Shop has seen massive global growth but found themselves disconnected from young people – the audience they needed to reach. They were looking for a way to make the values of their founder, Dame Anita Roddick, connect with younger generations.

Our approach to strategy is a living conversation with strangers. We call it the Third3ye. We put as

many young people into it as we could. Pressure tested the work with 100 hours of conversation.

Third3ye revealed that young people want a more inclusive vision of gender on their screens. The participants insisted that a socially conscious brand needed to do more than make a statement. They demanded meaningful progress that actively addressed the kind of inequality that led to the #BlackTikTokStrike.

Our integrated campaign was a hot take body positivity and needed to mirror the brand values. No shortcuts. That meant inclusivity, equity, and opportunity in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Our director, considered to be the godfather of music videos, and production company put together a crew where 90% of our production department heads were from underrepresented groups.

Along with the Body Butter music video set to our original Body Butter song, we captured content with our four TikTok creators to share their process with millions across The Body Shop’s social channels.

The integrated campaign ran for an 8-week flight across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Connected TV, OOH, Times Square, Street Teams, Bus Stops, Retail, Ecomm, and Email.

This was Tracy.OJ’s first commercial job ever. The creators had rarely been shown outside of TikTok. Now, instead of having their credit stolen, they were towering above NYC.

Spread Love’s 8-week run had an outsized impact for The Body Shop and TikTok creators.

1.4B earned media impressions

$12.9M in earned media

300% increase in brand awareness for non-customers

329% increase in ecomm page visits

11% increase in online Body Butter sales

Millions of TikTok Dance Credit mentions for @tracy.oj, @layzchipz, @sunjaiw, and @amari422_

We love seeing the business results and cultural impact of our work. “Spread Love” brought attention to the lack of recognition of social creators of color and reshaped how The Body Shop approaches their brand advertising and approaches activism.