Forever Against Animal Testing: The Body Shop CA & Cruelty Free Internat'l
The Body Shop (TBS) is a global beauty brand founded in 1976 in Brighton, England, by Anita Roddick, British activist and the founder of ‘ethical consumerism’ and seeks to make a positive difference in the world by offering high-quality, naturally-inspired, cruelty-free skincare, hair care and make-up produced ethically and sustainably. The Body Shop has more than 3,000 stores in more than 60 countries, including Canada where it has over 1,000 staff across 128 stores.
In 1989, The Body Shop was the first international beauty brand to campaign against the practice of animal testing in cosmetics. Over the last three decades, The Body Shop has worked with Cruelty Free International (CFI) to impact this issue on a global scale. The partners’ collective efforts, including gaining 1 million petition signatures, helped lead to a European Union ban in 2013. However, 80% of countries world wide still allow animal testing.
Returning to its activist roots, The Body Shop and CFI launched its Forever Against Animal Testing (F.A.A.T.) campaign in June 2017, with the goal of bringing the most petition signatures in history (8 million) to the UN General Assembly and a request for an international convention banning the testing of cosmetic products and ingredients on animals everywhere, forever in 2018.
The partners developed a strategy to engage animal lovers, asking them to sign the PETition for their pet who is really, really against animal testing. The strategy was built upon the core insight that Canadians love animals and none more unconditionally than their pets.
In order to move the needle on the issue, the partners engaged targeted influencers and media in a summer launch and then leveraged momentum built throughout the summer to lobby the Government of Canada on the issue in the Fall.
In-store staff activations engaged over 1,000 staff across 128 Canadian stores. In-store displays were switched to F.A.A.T. creative, employee uniforms were converted to F.A.A.T. t-shirts and bunny ears, and staff were trained to engage customers with the PETition. Local stores were empowered to execute their own events in partnership with local animal charities.
An online PETition landing page allowed Canadians to sign the petition and signees were encouraged to share a picture of themselves with their favorite animal and a petition link on social media.
In addition, newsletters were emailed to TBS’ Love Your Body Club (LYBC) members, asking them to sign and share the PETition, educating them on the issue and encouraged to donate their points to the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies.
Over 27 beauty and pet influencers in TBS’ largest local markets were invited to events for spa and grooming treatments. Once finished they got to meet celebrity photographer The Dogist (2.7 million followers) and had their photo taken. These influencers then shared their photo online asking their followers to sign the PETition.
The 2017 Canadian F.A.A.T. campaign was an unprecedented success. Canada earned the most signatures out of over 60 participating countries, surpassing all set goals, and saw an increase in sales. The Canadian campaign has since become the model for all other TBS stores around the world to emulate in 2018.
