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Actor Emma Mackey walks with a group of lions through a field before sprinting uphill together. “There is a goddess in all of us as strong as a lioness… embrace the power within,” Mackey says, as she reaches the summit and overlooks a sunset.
The campaign, shot by Mario Sorrenti, is part of an advertising rollout for Burberry’s new fragrance Goddess, which launched in August and for which Mackey is an ambassador. The actress, who appears in Barbie, Sex Education and Death on the Nile, was selected “because she embodies the central themes of strength, confidence and empowerment”, Coty’s chief commercial officer for prestige Caroline Andreotti tells Vogue Business. (Coty has had the exclusive licence rights for Burberry’s fragrance and cosmetics business since 2017.)
“Lionesses represent female unity and strength,” Mackey says. “They are confident and move together. Much like them, we stand on the shoulders of the women who came before us and those who bolster us throughout our own lives. To me, this image is a real source of empowerment.”
Coty’s approach leans into “femvertising” and feminine empowerment, which is intended to convey inclusivity and overcome patriarchal visions of the past, spun into commercial appeal to sell products. Unlike years past, when brands previously acted as authorities that dictated to female consumers how they should look and how to achieve that ideal, the language has shifted towards supporting and advocating for women; instead of saying “fix yourself”, the new narrative is “embrace who you are unapologetically”. Consider it the Barbie effect.
Yet, the progressive attitudes and conversations feel a world away from significant recent global setbacks to women’s rights, from the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US to Afghanistan’s growing ban of women in public places — and insincere efforts from brands can fall flat and backfire among today’s discerning customers. Brands that engage in femvertising need to be doing enough to drive social change, both within and outside of their organisation, otherwise they could be at risk of selling commodity feminism, experts say.
However, sitting out isn’t an easy decision. Consumers now expect brands to stand up on topics such as gender equality, as well as climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, racial diversity and ethical labour practices. They feel investor pressure from above, employee pressure from within and consumer pressure to be more public in the way they communicate and defend their values, says Mark Sinnock, group chief strategy officer at advertising giant Havas. It’s a necessity for brands that want to succeed long term, he says, but acknowledges that keeping everybody happy is hard.
Ellie Bamford, chief strategy officer for North America at global advertising firm Wunderman Thompson, agrees there is a mindset shift and the brands that consumers align themselves with act as “a projection to the world” of the causes and values they support.
Investment beyond advertisements
Coty is putting a lot of marketing dollars behind Goddess. As the female counterpart to Burberry’s Hero fragrance, which sent social media into a frenzy at launch in 2021 by starring actor Adam Driver as a centaur, it’s a “significant” launch for the brand, according to Andreotti. The plan is to celebrate the launch of Goddess with an event in the UK hosted by Mackey in September, and with pop-up experiences in New York and Hangzhou in October. There will also be full outdoor, TV, print and digital ad campaigns.
Asked how Coty is thinking about women’s rights beyond Burberry’s ambassador appointment, Andreotti asserts that for decades, “Coty’s brands have been empowering people to express themselves and create their own vision of beauty.” In January, the group launched its ‘Undefine Beauty’ campaign, which includes a petition to English language dictionaries to change “outdated” and “binary” definitions of the term beauty. Earlier this year, its brand Max Factor joined the likes of Chloé, Dove and Clé de Peau Beauté in partnering with Unicef to support the Skills4Girls programme, which develops girls’ skills in STEM subjects, among others. “We want to be there for every vision of beauty. This includes tackling outdated stereotypes, promoting equality and working with partners that share our vision,” says Andreotti.
Andreotti also emphasises Coty’s internal priorities. “Of course, marketing alone won’t make this shift. We are taking company-wide action,” she says. Through its sustainability strategy, ‘Beauty That Lasts’, Coty has developed and implemented programmes that advance its environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda, including improvements to gender pay equity. In 2022, the company achieved its goal to pay “our associates equitably for similar roles and performance, regardless of gender, and to have strong female representation in leadership”, she explains. The majority of Coty’s board and executive committee are female, she adds. With Sue Y Nabi at the helm, it is also one of the rare beauty conglomerates that has a female CEO.
Improving the lives of women and girls is a longstanding priority for beauty company Avon, which also has a female leader in chief executive Angela Cretu. Through its charitable arm, Avon has provided nearly $1.5 million in scholarships to Avon representatives and their families since 2012. Ninety per cent of Avon’s business still comes from peer-to-peer selling, according to Cretu. Avon recently took its commitment to women further with a $100,000 investment in the Malala Fund, a charity established by education activist Malala Yousafzai. The funds are used to help more girls attend school and learn the skills needed to create a stronger future, according to the brand.
“Companies are greenwashing when it comes to female empowerment if they create shallow claims. Beauty itself, colour makeup and such, doesn’t empower anyone,” says Cretu. She’s hopeful that Avon’s mindful approach will resonate with younger customers. “It s very easy for a 137-year-old brand like ours to lose its relevance. You need constant reaffirmation and repositioning with every new generation.”
Pressure to perform
Also involved in the broader shift are shareholders and stakeholders, who are increasingly aware that consumers respond when companies take a stance. Hind Sebti spent 20 years building brands at Procter Gamble and L’Oréal. In 2020, she co-founded Waldencast, a holding company and investment fund that incubates and accelerates early stage, purpose-driven beauty brands, and Whind, a social impact-driven beauty brand. Her vision of empowerment is “being tolerant to accepting all kinds of beauty and not only portraying unattainable standards”, as well as ensuring that as many women have financial independence, which she says is where real freedom comes from.
Building credibility takes time, Sebti says. “When we invest in or acquire brands, we look at what we call ‘a real brand’. They have amazing products, a brand promise and purpose that is built into their DNA. Today, when something is trendy, like the word empowerment, it means everything and not much at the same time. Brands jump on it, but not all will be credible.” Not only are investors scrutinising more closely, consumers are too, she believes. “If out of the blue, a brand makes a claim, people will ask why they’re suddenly talking about this. They may also question what they’re doing for their employees and the immediate people in their ecosystem. If you talk about women, what does your leadership team look like? It should start from within.”
Brands also need to be aware of risks around aligning with certain social platforms. Target reported a sales decline this month, after it received right-wing backlash for its Pride Month merchandise. While the company has been selling Pride-themed collections for over a decade, it reported an increased number of customers who threatened employees at stores over these displays. In response to the “volatile circumstances”, the company said that it would remove some of its Pride pieces and move displays to the back of stores, triggering a separate backlash over the removal of merchandise. The challenge today is that “cancel culture is very real”, Havas’s Sinnock warns.
The idea of purpose is getting more personal and the world’s biggest problems are being felt on a much more individual level, Sinnock believes. Brands have an opportunity to empower consumers to join and contribute to their journey, he suggests.
Havas’s latest annual Meaningful Brands report, which surveys over 91,000 individuals and 1,300 brands globally, found that brands are increasingly elevating and empowering their audiences to be activists, rather than be the hero themselves, through ways such as letting customers decide how to invest funds in important work. But, it has to be authentic — 72 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they were “tired of brands pretending they want to help society when they just want to make money”; and 77 per cent believe that companies should be transparent about their commitments and promises, while only 33 per cent believe they actually are.
Commitments should be long term, advises Wunderman Thompson’s Bamford. “Don’t be a cause jumper. Pick a lane that feels inherent to who you are as a brand, and not just [something to market to consumers, but also] one that you can honour internally with the people who work for you, rather than jumping from one topic to another year-over-year. I think that brands forget that internal piece sometimes and it becomes very much an external marketing message.”
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