Beyond beauty: The Body Shop empowers young voters ahead of US midterm elections

15 Aug 2022 --- On the occasion of International Youth Day, The Body Shop has announced an effort to drive youth voter engagement and registration across the US, as part of its “Be seen. Be heard” global campaign in collaboration with the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth.

“Our goal is to help demystify the voting process and provide resources to make voting easier for the midterm elections in November,” Hilary Lloyd, VP of marketing and corporate responsibility for The Body Shop North America, tells PersonalCareInsights.

“We recognize that brands can have power that individuals don’t, and through this campaign, we hope The Body Shop can uplift the next generation and inspire collective action as we have with previous issue campaigns that have tackled LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, and more.”

The retailer is also launching a “Flex Your Power Pack,” made up of its skincare and body care products and committing US$1 from each sale up to US$25,000, to Generation Citizen’s work in civics education.

Visitors to the brand’s website can learn about the importance of voting in this year’s elections, check their current registration status and register to vote through the brand's virtual voting hub – developed alongside Impactree for the integration and TurboVote for voter registration technology.

The Body Shop is pushing for change by encouraging and educating young adults to vote and elect leaders who represent them well.Be seen. Be heard
The campaign, which was launched in conjunction with an extensive joint report Be Seen Be Heard: Understanding young people’s political participation, focuses on amplifying youth perspectives and representation in public life in more than 75 countries.

The report outlines how and why young people engage in political decision-making and the challenges that sometimes prevent them from doing so.

“According to the findings, 63% of people across all age groups in the US agree that more opportunities for younger people to have a say in policy development and another finding showed that nearly eight in 10 young people in the US say they want to make positive changes but don’t know where to start,” states Lloyd.

The data obtained from the research suggests that three quarters (76%) of under 30 years old think politicians don’t listen to young people. This feeling is particularly acute in South Africa (90%), Spain (80%) and the UK (80%). It isn’t just young people who feel this way – 65% of people over 60 years think so too.

Hence, the retailer has chosen to bridge the age gap between political decision makers and those they serve by urging the youth to vote. “We were motivated to partner with Generation Citizen, a leader in civics education across the US, to reach the very young people who say they want to make change but don’t know where to start,” continues Lloyd.

Young voters in the US typically participate in elections at rates of 20-30% lower than older voters and routinely face structural barriers to doing so, including complicated rules about absentee voting, state-by-state ambiguities and lack of civic education.

The “Be Heard” ambassadors across North America include a list of changemakers like reproductive rights activist Deja Foxx, equity and climate justice organizer Larissa Crawford, sustainability and low-impact lifestyle champion Karishma Porwal, education equity advocate Marley Dias and UNICEF ambassador and actress Saara Chaudry.

Social and environmental commitments
Recently, the retailer sponsored and exhibited at the Women’s Convention Event in Houston, Texas, hosted by the Women’s March, to show up and be in community with women and allies fighting for a feminist future. The Body Shop introduced a refillable aluminum bottle, as part of its attempt to achieve 100% recyclable packaging.

“The Body Shop is at its core an activist brand. Throughout our campaigning history, The Body Shop has created direct change through new legislative action or policy changes in more than 24 countries since 1990,” Lloyd says.

Earlier this year, The Body Shop established a Youth Collective, made up of 10 to 12 people from inside and outside the business aged under 30 to help amplify youth voices and advise the leadership accordingly.

The retailer is also working to achieve 100% recyclable packaging in its products, including all bath, body and hair care products, by 2025.

Although recycling is “extremely important” to The Body Shop, the company is also refocusing around refillable product schemes. “We believe refill is a major step to get to a ‘best of both worlds’ approach reducing carbon footprint and waste,” concurs William Connolly, head of packaging innovation and sustainability at The Body Shop.

In 2021, The Body Shop announced an ambitious five-year plan to roll out refill stations in the majority of its stores globally in an effort to reduce plastic use and become more environmentally sustainable. 

By Radhika Sikaria