When over 25 percent of Gen Z demand inclusion in the beauty industry, brands listen and take action. This groundbreaking shift towards a more diversified and inclusive branding opens up doors for marginalized groups to see themselves in media. These 25 ingenious beauty ads that promote diversity and inclusion will blow you away!
Why is inclusion important in beauty ads?
Beauty ads like to sell their products as glamorous. For many people, the goal of makeup is to achieve a higher standard of beauty. But historically, standards of beauty have been intertwined with racism, sexism, ableism, and many other issues.
Ads like these have been proven to lower self esteem. They can contribute to body image issues, depression, and internalized hate. But in recent years, things have been changing.
Today, diversity and inclusion are part of any good beauty company’s marketing. As it turns out, “anyone can be beautiful” is a more popular message than “only a specific type of person can be beautiful.” But there’s still a certain challenge in keeping your brand image consistent with new visual elements and messaging.
How do you create diverse beauty ads the right way? Here are 25 great examples to inspire you.
1. Milk Makeup
Offering a fresh take on beauty, Milk Makeup designs unisex packaging for their products. They collaborated with a men’s beauty authority site, Very Good Light. Both companies featured diverse models in their “Blur the Lines” campaign.
2. Very Good Light
Very Good Light is one of the leading men’s beauty and grooming sites that advocates diversity and individuality. They aim to create more acceptance of gender nonconformity in beauty. They created a film with Milk Makeup called “Blur the Lines” to break the barrier of the definition of beauty.
Check out the video here.
3. Becca
Becca Cosmetics wasn’t kidding when they said they wanted to cater to every skin tone out there. They ensured that 50% of their shades were in the medium to dark category, with the other 50% in the light to medium category. This idea gives all customers with varying skin tones a chance to try their products.
4. Fenty Beauty
When Rihanna launched the video campaign for Fenty Beauty’s impressive 40 different foundation shades, it took the world by storm. They featured models of different ethnicities, as well as plus-size models like Paloma Elsesser. This helped spark the push for diversity in the beauty industry.
5. Mac
MAC’s #WhatsYourThing campaign aligns with their mantra “All Ages, All Races, All Genders.” The ad features foundation routines for both models and MAC employees. They also invited consumers to share their looks on social media, inspiring others to be proud of their individuality.
6. Stellar
Stellar’s CEO, Monika Deol, believes that there is no “one size fits all” in make-up. Color is not merely light or dark. The subtleties are just as important, so she tested the shades on everyday people. A forward-thinking brand like Stellar lets people of color know they’re welcome.
7. Revolution
A powerful image can undeniably capture anyone’s attention, and that’s what Revolution did with what could be touted as the most diverse beauty ad ever. The ad features a transgender activist, a 90-year-old make-up lover, and a disabled star. This campaign had people from all walks of life scrambling for their unisex foundation.
8. Black Opal
This brand is all about women of color. Black Opal embraced the idea of providing women with darker skin tones their perfect shades. They recently launched a campaign with the slogan, “Beauty comes in ALL shades, and Black Opal is for EVERY shade of beauty.” Although there’s a powerful message that lies in this campaign, it was met with some debate among fans of the brand who felt it watered down their support for women of color.
9. Wet N’ Wild
The “Breaking Beauty” campaign encouraged the uniqueness of every person. Featuring a model with albinism, a transgender DJ, a cancer survivor, and an amputee activist, this campaign emboldens everyone to embrace their disabilities and adversities in life.
10. L’oreal
Beauty ads have often set unrealistic standards for audiences. That’s why L’oreal launched the “Your Skin, Your Story” campaign to empower everyone to be grateful for all their inherent qualities.
11. Neutrogena
Neutrogena broke its mold of running product-focused ads by releasing a captivating video beauty ad that starred Kerry Washington. The “See What’s Possible” campaign uses a range of models to showcase the wide-ranging benefits of their products.
12. Cover FX
Cover FX wanted to break the notion that “nude” only pertains to white skin through their “Nude is Not Beige” campaign. They also launched an online shade matcher so everyone can check which foundation works best with their skin tone. This encourages customers who struggle to find the perfect fit to give Cover FX a shot.
13. Lancôme
Lancôme is a household name in the beauty industry. With business acumen like no other, their campaign called “My Shade. My Power.” gained a lot of accolades from new and existing customers. Lancôme featured 40 different women from the UK to showcase 40 different foundation shades. A brilliant, understated beauty ad.
14. Glossier
A monumental campaign that celebrated women in all shapes and sizes proved successful for Glossier’s Body Hero products. In addition to pregnant Olympian Swin Cash Canal, the ad featured models of different body types, skin colors, and experiences, all posing nude for an ad campaign that celebrates the body.
15. Clinique
Women are still put down for their achievements, and beauty ads throughout history have upheld a superficial standard. Clinique’s “Even Better” campaign was aimed to empower bright, independent Indian women—and all women, for that matter—to be proud of their strengths.
16. Orly
In Western society, Muslim people are often vilified, scrutinized, or looked at as a curiosity. Orly wanted to put this issue to bed and collaborated with Muslim Girl to put their Muslim customers on a beauty pedestal. They launched a halal-certified, water-permeable nail polish line, so observant Muslim women can express their unique style.
17. Shiseido
Shiseido believes that beauty knows no race, gender, or age. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world or how much wealth you’re sitting on. Their campaign slogan, “Beauty lies within, and every time we bring it to light, we make the world a little brighter,” will brighten up everyone’s day.
18. Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown celebrated its 25th anniversary by releasing the “Be Who You Are” campaign. It encourages women—and anyone who wears their makeup—to use cosmetics to stand out, rather than hiding their perceived flaws.
19. Nyx
Nyx is a brand that stays true to its corporate social responsibility. Their “Luv Out Loud” campaign was a contest that invited people to choose a charity, upload a video, and explain why they chose that charity. Nyx picked one winner for a chance to give $10,000 to their chosen charity.
20. Revlon
Revlon’s “Live Boldly” campaign, which highlights women of different colors, ethnicities, and size, is intended to push women to love themselves and live unapologetically.
21. Covergirl
Covergirl had a total makeover with the company’s slogan, from “Easy, Breezy, Beautiful” to “I Am What I Make Up.” A stunning campaign for their TruBlend foundations accompanied the rebranding, starring a model with a skin disease called vitiligo. Campaigns like this enable other women with unique appearances and conditions to look up to these beauty brands and be more confident in their skin. Here’s a video of Amy Deanna from the Covergirl campaign.
22. Urban Decay
Urban Decay has started to push for unedited make-up photos to remind people what “real” skin looks like. Instead of smoothing over pores, wrinkles, blemishes, and moles, Urban Decay’s beauty advertisement encourages consumers to accept their skin imperfections.
23. Babor
One of the most unrealistic standards that beauty companies promote is completely smooth, unblemished skin. In real life, everyone has flaws, and Babor wanted women to hold their heads up high and be proud of their imperfections by launching unedited, unretouched photos of women with varying colors, ages, and sizes.
24. CVS
CVS Pharmacy’s goal in 2020 is to encourage advertising transparency, especially in the beauty industry. Many women try to impersonate models in fashion magazines and beauty ads. More often than not, it makes them feel disheartened knowing they can never be as close to what those women look like. So CVS is now putting a CVS Beauty Mark called “Beauty Unaltered” on photo ads moving forward, trashing heavily edited photo ads.
25. Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs is also spearheading diverse and inclusive branding. The company launched its 29-shade foundation line, which has every color from the palest beige to the deepest brown. This video campaign spreads a clear and compelling message: Everyone is beautiful, no matter their color.
What is a beauty ad?
Beauty ads are advertisements for makeup, skincare, and other cosmetic products, typically marketed towards women. Most of these cosmetic brands create visuals or videos that showcase their products and how they help women express themselves, improve their skin, or reduce signs of aging.
How do I advertise my beauty products?
It’s best to advertise beauty products with a mix of online and offline advertising. Here are some ways:
- Promote on social media
- Write a blog
- Collaborate with influencers
- Create tutorial videos
- Create unique merch giveaways
- Offer samples
You can come up with your own promotional ideas to sell your products. The only limit is your imagination.
Design unlimited beauty ads with Penji
Penji employs the most talented designers from all over the world, so we know the value of diversity. And that is why we love working on beauty ads that send such powerful messages. If you are a company with the same mission, here’s how we can help you with your ads, logos, packaging, and more.
1. Request a design
After signing up with Penji, you’ll gain access to our user-friendly platform. Create a new project and fill in all the details you need in your beauty ad design.
You can include logos, fonts, colors, copy, photos, and anything else that’ll help your designer bring your vision to life.
2. Review the initial draft
We’ll take it from here. You can take care of business while our designers get to work on your project. Expect your first draft within 24-48 hours.
Upon receiving the draft, you can provide as much feedback as you’d like. With unlimited revisions, you can keep fine-tuning until your beauty ad is exactly where you need it to be.
3. Download the final design
Every design comes with source files, which you can easily download through the Penji platform. You own 100% of your designs, so you can tweak and reuse elements from them forever.
Don’t miss this chance to have the best graphic designs for your beauty ads by signing up with Penji. Grab this 15% discount now!
