“You are beautiful, but sometimes you may need a helping hand, it’s about making the best of yourself.” With an acoustic and natural sound, without a beautiful formal clothe but a long-white dress, without a magnificent make-up accommodates but a simple-smiling face. Nature’s Way to Beautiful has continued The Body Shop’s style: simple and natural.
The Body Shop made its green advertising by the claim “Nature’s way is the only way to be beautiful.” As most skin appliances and cosmetic companies, The Body Shop targets its audience mainly as women who care about their beauty in a natural way. Apparently, every woman dose care her beauty. The Body Shop has more than 10 categories of different product lines, which including bath & body, fragrance, make-up, hair and skin care. And its product lines ranges from body wash, anti-age, shampoo, to massage oils. There is no speak aside in introducing the function of new cosmetic product, but an acoustic sound and changing natural images in highlighting the three keep values in The Body Shop’s business: Activating self-esteem, supporting community trade and protecting our planet.
This commercial was mainly divided as three parts within two minutes time period. Its background color tone is “green”; it helps remind the audience that the basic color tones of The Body Shop’s product package and store-design. In this commercial, it presents large amounts of images of the natural environment, and taking turns with sentences of words in the screen instead of speak aside. And leads the audience to think from self-esteem to community image. Then to the core question of what is the way to be beautiful. And finally show up the answer: The Body Shop could provide you the nature’s way to be beautiful.
Nature’s Way to be beauty has successfully addressed its “green” image by using adaptable symbolic patterns. Firstly, from the beginning of the ads turns out the sentence “You are beautiful whatever your quirks. It’s about making the best of yourself.” And there is a talk and slim white model taking her dresses and hairstyle, and showing her beautiful faces and lovely smiling. This part could be considered as activating the self-esteem of the audience by telling them you have the need and right to be beautiful. As well as sending the message that The Body Shop could address your need in an easy natural way. And then the image transfer into a forest background which the girl leading the audience to explore the nature ingredients which The Body Shop uses in making its products. Fresh aloes, growing blousons, and rich fruits, all theses natural plants indicates that the green corporate philosophy of The Body Shop.
Secondly, Nature’s Way to Be Beauty coveys the theme of community building and community service. In the second part of this commercial, it presents a picture of “the community who depends on it.” Within 20 seconds period, it presents the image of traditional craftspeople, rural cooperatives and tribal villages. No matter old people and children, no matter men or women, they are showing a smiling faces in the commercial. The laughing faces of the children and highly skilled craftspeople, these images helps to further inserts a green corporate images of The Body Shop. “The community who depends on it” create the company’s image of corporate social responsibility by indicating The Body Shop’s commitment to trading fairly and responsibly with its suppliers in access to a global market. It maintains its reputation by making the commitment to invest a community-based business that delivers valuable products to customers while generating profitable growth for the company and community. It’s sufficient rhetoric if the audience “believed” a community somewhere in the world could benefits if they buy a fabulous pampering products.
Furthermore, the commercial move to a broader scale by presenting the image of natural environment, the flowing river, the wildlife and the sweeping hills. And the white model standing on the top of mountain confidently and hopefully. And the sentence show out “ Because we believed that the only way to be beautiful is the natural’s way.” The whole commercial ends with the logo of The Body Shop. The images of the nature environment is a good indicator in linking The Body Shop’s green commitment to demonstrate the positive value of its act, the purity of its purpose. And the word “we” had occurs for four times within two minutes commercial. In the end it states “And standing up for causes that are important to the world we live”, thoses kind of "we" sentence help to create a common ground for the individual involvement. The audience is thus invited to identify with the company’s effort to protect our environment.
Overall, the campaign has successfully in employing the effective elements in building a green advertisement. pictorial elements,written material and music are centralized to the key line that: How we should define beauty? This is a tough question could be answered in different ways. And this commercial did successfully showed to the audience that the definition from The Body Shop: Nature’s way. It’s a sufficient appeal to those who care about their body health and ingredients of the products.
However, there are some critiques I want to point out after seeing this advertisement. On one hand, The Body Shop claimed that the natural and confidently way is the only way to be beautiful. But the model it used in the commercial is still slim, white and have a exquisite face. She is still in the category of typical beauty. On the other hand, I was doubted that buying natural ingredients in making skin care product is kind of destroying the environment since in will cause an increasing demand especially facing the global market pressure. And if the natural way is the most beautiful way, I would argue they why we still need to buy that kind of product to build up our beauty? It seems there is still long way to refine the concept beauty in people’s mind by just buying the Body Shop’s product.
Further Information Link:
-The Body Shop Blog:
http://blog.thebodyshop-usa.com/?cm_re=Tyra_MothersDayBoy_Anon-_-Navigation-_-blog
-TBS Values & Campaigns:
http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/beauty/values?cm_re=Tyra_MothersDayBoy_Anon-_-Navigation-_-values
